Episode 196: The Kid Detective with Michael Scott
American Rambler with Colin Woodward
Release Date: 02/11/2021
Episode 199: "The NRA: The Unauthorized History"
American Rambler with Colin Woodward
In part two of Colin's talk with journalist Frank Smyth, Frank talks about his 2020 book, The NRA: The Unauthorized History. The history of the National Rifle Association begins in New York City in 1871 as a group made up of Union veterans and those interested in target shooting. Founded on the model of the British National Rifle Association, the American NRA was a pro-government, pro-military organization seeking to train men for the next major war. As Frank's book shows, the NRA started to take a hard turn to the Right in the late 1970s at what has been called the "Cincinnati Revolt." Today,...
info_outline
Episode 198: Frank Smyth: Central America and the Mid-East
American Rambler with Colin Woodward
Frank Smyth is a journalist with a long and impressive career covering war-torn places such as Central America and the Mid-East. His resume includes articles and stories for The Village Voice, The Nation, and The Washington Post. He is also the author of The NRA: The Unauthorized History (2020), the subject of the next American Rambler podcast. You can find Frank's writings at and . In part one of Frank and Colin's conversation, Frank talks about how he went from a student at Boston College and Johns Hopkins to covering the complicated and often brutal war in El Salvador in the mid-1980s,...
info_outline
Episode 197: Dan Gullotta
American Rambler with Colin Woodward
Dan Gullotta is the host of the popular Age of Jackson history podcast. A relatively recent arrival in the U.S. by way of Australia, Dan is a Ph.D. student of religious studies at Stanford University, though he is currently residing in Kansas. Dan is working on a dissertation that focuses on 19th century religion and how it influenced the development of the second party system in America. Dan talks with Colin about why he wanted to do a podcast, his love of his new homeland, and where America stands in terms of its historical consciousness. He also discusses what he doesn't like about...
info_outline
Episode 196: The Kid Detective with Michael Scott
American Rambler with Colin Woodward
Movie detectives are as old as movies themselves. So what could a 2020 film add to the genre? Michael Scott, co-host of cinema podcast The Dana Buckler Show and his own film podcast Adkins Undisputed returns to American Rambler to discuss the recent crime noir/comedy/thriller The Kid Detective. It's a detective movie, but in addition to having a subtle comedic sense, it packs an emotional punch. The Kid Detective stars Adam Brody (of TV's The O.C. and Smallville) as Abe Applebaum, an early-30s, down-on-his-luck private investigator who gets his biggest case in years involving the murder of a...
info_outline
Episode 195: James Oakes
American Rambler with Colin Woodward
James Oakes is a two time winner of the Lincoln Prize for Civil War studies. But as he tells Colin, he initially went to college for business. An English teacher at Baruch College wisely turned him away from the world of international finance. Since then, he has made a name for himself as a scholar of 19th century history. Jim ended up attending Berkeley for graduate school during an astounding period in the department's history. He studied with Kenneth Stampp, whose book The Peculiar Institution Jim had read when he was still in high school. Also there at the time was Winthrop Jordan,...
info_outline
Episode 194: Michael Gorra
American Rambler with Colin Woodward
Michael Gorra is a native of Connecticut who has taught at Smith College since the 1970s. A professor of English, his most recent book is The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War. This book builds on a career dedicated to examining writers such as Henry James and V. S. Naipaul. In Faulkner, Professor Gorra has tackled one of our most brilliant and baffling novelists. Raised on a steady diet of sci-fi, Michael entered college thinking he wanted to write novels. Or at least, he knew he didn't want to work in his father's fruit business. He ended up pursuing an English degree, though he he...
info_outline
Episode 193: Country Boy: The Roots of Johnny Cash
American Rambler with Colin Woodward
Colin gives a sneak peak at his January 6 "Legacies and Lunch" talk for the Central Arkansas Public Library in Little Rock. His talk will be on his upcoming book Country Boy: The Roots of Johnny Cash, coming out in the fall of 2021 from the University of Arkansas Press. Country Boy seeks to reclaim Cash for Arkansas. In the book, Colin examines Cash's upbringing in rural Arkansas, his rise to stardom, and the memorable concerts he gave in his home state. These included the concerts for Winthrop Rockefeller in 1968, at Cummins prison farm in 1969, his 1976 show in Rison, and his final Arkansas...
info_outline
Episode 192: Alan Farrell
American Rambler with Colin Woodward
It's not often that Colin has a poet warrior on the podcast. It's been twenty years since Dr. Farrell taught at Hampden-Sydney College, where he was a professor of modern languages. He spent 27 years at HSC before moving on to VMI, where he was fired from being a dean after he said the wrong thing to a "fat guy in an expensive suit." Nevertheless, he enjoyed a long tenure as a teacher at VMI before his retirement to Unlucky Mountain near Lexington, where he lives and rides motorcycles. Alan grew up in New Hampshire, went to prep school in Connecticut, graduated with a bachelor's from Trinity...
info_outline
Episode 191: Jean H. Baker
American Rambler with Colin Woodward
Historian Jean Baker is a lifelong resident of Baltimore, so it makes sense that her most recent book is Building America: The Life of Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Her book on Latrobe is only the latest in a long and productive career that began as a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University. At Hopkins, she worked under the late, great, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David Donald, whose students include Michael Holt, Robert Kenzer, and Bill Cooper (who have previously been on the podcast). True to her mentor's example, Dr. Baker's scholarship has combined political history and biography. Her...
info_outline
Episode 190: David Dixon
American Rambler with Colin Woodward
David Dixon is the author of Radical Warrior: August Willich's Journey from German Revolutionary to Union General. Surprisingly, it is the first major biography of General Willich, whose life was the stuff of Hollywood movies. Willich was an aristocrat, born into a prominent family in Prussia. After growing up in the household of the philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher, Willich pursued a military education before joining the army. Thus began his interesting and unconventional military career. Willich took part in a rebellion in Germany amid the revolutions running through Europe in the late...
info_outlineMovie detectives are as old as movies themselves. So what could a 2020 film add to the genre? Michael Scott, co-host of cinema podcast The Dana Buckler Show and his own film podcast Adkins Undisputed returns to American Rambler to discuss the recent crime noir/comedy/thriller The Kid Detective. It's a detective movie, but in addition to having a subtle comedic sense, it packs an emotional punch.
The Kid Detective stars Adam Brody (of TV's The O.C. and Smallville) as Abe Applebaum, an early-30s, down-on-his-luck private investigator who gets his biggest case in years involving the murder of a high schooler. His snooping and probing lands him in a number of compromising and dangerous situations, ultimately leading him into the dark and evil recesses of small town life. It sounds like a million other movies, but The Kid Detective manages to do something clever and new.
This is the first feature directed by Canadian Evan Morgan, who also wrote the film. It co-stars Canadian actor Sophie Nelisse as Abe's sidekick Caroline and Peter MacNeill, another Canadian, as the principal.
The Kid Detective should make ten best lists for 2020 films. It would also be a great first movie on a kid detective double feature with the impressive and dark 2005 film Brick, which launched the directing career of Rian Johnson.
WARNING! THIS CONTAINS MANY SPOILERS. If you've seen the movie, though (and you should), enjoy this deep dive courtesy of Colin and Mike.
Music: "Abe's Theme," "School," and "Outro" from The Kid Detective soundtrack by Jay McCarroll.