World History by the Numbers
The History Fangirl Podcast
In this episode, I chat with Daniel Hoyer from Seshat about looking at history through a statistical lens. We discuss the and his new book, Figuring Out the Past: The 3,495 Vital Statistics that Explain World History. Let's Stay in Touch! You can join the conversation in our Facebook Group, , or come say hi on ! My Travel Websites - Culture & History Travel Guides in the USA, Europe, and Beyond - Balkan Travel Blog - Travel in Oklahoma & Route 66 The theme music for the podcast is "Places Unseen" by Lee Rosevere.
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Veliko Tarnovo: Bulgaria's Medieval Capital
The History Fangirl Podcast
In this episode, I chat with Eric Halsey from the Bulgarian History Podcast about the hidden gem of Veliko Tarnovo. This once-important Bulgarian city is one of the most picturesque in Europe, and yet not many outside of Bulgaria know much about it. You can find Eric's podcast Let's Stay in Touch! You can join the conversation in our Facebook Group, , or come say hi on ! More on Veliko Tarnovo: If you are planning to visit Veliko Tarnovo, here are our Veliko Tarnovo travel guides. My Travel Websites - Culture & History Travel Guides in the USA, Europe,...
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Stalking Chernobyl
The History Fangirl Podcast
Yes, it's been two years, and for that I'm very sorry! But I'm back with new episodes next week. In the meantime, enjoy this interview on Chernobyl I did a few weeks ago with Darmon Richter, the author of the new book Chernobyl, a Stalker's Guide. The theme music for the podcast is "Places Unseen" by Lee Rosevere.
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The Great Kazakh Famine
The History Fangirl Podcast
On today’s episode of the History Fangirl Podcast, we talk with renowned travel blogger Megan Starr, whom we spoke to a few months back about Kiev. But this week, we’re talking in person, in Kazakhstan, at the site of the memorial to the Great Kazakh Famine, a historical event which not many people know about in the West but looms large in the history of Kazakhstan. And, we both have recovered from the Kazakhstani flu that has been going around, so we’re ready to get rolling!
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The World Nomad Games
The History Fangirl Podcast
This week’s episode is something a little different. I am in Isyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan, covering the World Nomad Games, a festival of sports that’s sort of like the Olympics for nomadic peoples. The sports, though, are way more interesting than, say, basketball. My first interview this episode is with the co-captain of the American Kok Boru team (I’ll explain later), and the sports include horse archery, tug of war, arm wrestling and more.
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The Massacre at Srebrenica
The History Fangirl Podcast
Last year, Alex Cruikshanks came on the show to talk about Belgrade, a really detailed and wide-ranging episode. And we had such a great time, he’s back again to talk about more recent history in Yugoslavia, specifically the brutal massacre at Srebrenica. Yugoslavia, as anyone who was alive in the 1990s knows, was falling apart in the early part of the decade. The Bosnian War was raging, and in 1995, some 8,000 Bosniaks, mostly men and boys, were killed.
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The Strangely Competitive History of the CN Tower
The History Fangirl Podcast
Every city has that one landmark that seems like a tourist trap and practically begs you not to visit. For me, that was the CN Tower in Toronto. I didn’t go near it the first time I visited the city, and the second time, this past July, I planned to steer clear. But it turns out the joke was on me, as the CN Tower is an amazing building with a funny, competitive and ingenious bit of Canadian history.
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Traveling the Green Book
The History Fangirl Podcast
In the first half of the 20th century, the automobile became a symbol of freedom to American families. Middle-class families able to afford their own car were no longer restricted to train or bus timetables, and the great American road trip was born. But for black Americans, this new freedom collided with old hatred, prejudices and dangers. African Americans began using “the Green Book,” a guide to places that were friendly to them along their journey.
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The Best of The History Fangirl Podcast's First Year
The History Fangirl Podcast
We did it! Next week will mark a full year of publishing The History Fangirl Podcast, and this week marks the 50th episode, so it felt like the right time to do a retrospective of the first 12 months of the show. My producer picked a handful of his favorite clips (it was too hard for me to pick!) from the past year, and so this episode looks back on some of the fun and fascinating stories my amazing guests have told.
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Philadelphia's Elfreth's Alley
The History Fangirl Podcast
Philadelphia is by far one of my favorite American cities. I used to live there and run a photo-a-day website there, and it’s one of the best cities to live in if you’re a history buff. On today’s episode, we talk about the amazing Elfreth’s Alley, the oldest continually lived-on residential street in the country (hard to fit that on a title belt, but still pretty cool). I had the chance to take a tour of the street with the Elfreth’s Alley Association’s Board Member Brittany Thomas.
info_outlineOne of the fascinating things about the city of Atlanta, Georgia is how often it has had to change and adapt to forces around it. Sometimes it’s gone kicking and screaming, and sometimes it’s forged its own path. Because it’s arguably undergone more major cultural and economic changes than most American cities, it’s a great opportunity to study the evolution of American life. Specifically, we’re talking today about the Ponce City Market, formerly the Sears and Roebuck building, which is a great example of how business models come and go, how commerce affects cultural life, and how businesses can impact a city by investing in the structures they will eventually leave behind. My guest today is Caroline Eubanks, a freelance travel writer whose book This is My South comes out this fall. We chat about how Sears came to Atlanta in the 1920s and what legacy its building leaves behind.
Atlanta after the Civil War
As Caroline tells me, Atlanta has had a rocky relationship with its past. The city was notoriously burned during the Civil War, and then suffered another major fire in 1916. So when Sears & Roebuck came to town, their building was the first major structure in their chosen neighborhood. Atlanta has also not always appreciated its landmarks, tearing down many buildings that are just a few decades old to replace with new ones, so the fact that the Ponce City Market building is still around is remarkable. Atlanta was struggling for jobs after Reconstruction, so Sears coming to town in 1926 was a big deal.
What Sears meant to the South
The Sears business model of mail-order goods and home delivery was a huge boon to the South, where many rural communities couldn’t otherwise get access to many of the things Sears sold. So when the city was looking to attract businesses, an entrepreneur named Ivan Allen Sr. teamed up with the Chamber of Commerce and wooed Sears to Atlanta (along with another little-known company, General Motors). But the city Sears landed in was still struggling with the after-effects of the Civil War, with hard segregation between whites and blacks, race riots and more.
The decline of Sears
By the 1970s, Atlanta was experiencing what a lot of major urban areas in the U.S. saw happening: the rise of the suburbs and white flight. Where going into the city to shop at Sears was once a big part of life in the region, large shopping malls were opening in the ‘burbs, and the entire way people bought things shifted. Sears ended up closing its retail store in 1979, and then by 1987 the offices closed as well. The City of Atlanta purchased the two-million-square-foot building in 1990 to use for government offices, but they really only needed the first two floors. But then, in 2010, the city sold the building to a developer named Jamestown, who has developed huge complexes across the United States.
The Rise of Ponce City Market
In 2013, Jamestown began developing the space and it opened a year later. Now it’s a thriving residential and commercial complex, including a world-class food hall. It’s transformed the neighborhood, of course, and it’s truly an example of what can happen if cities hold onto their landmarks and think creatively about how they can be used. And there’s more to see around the Market as well. As Caroline tells me, it’s important to check out Sweet Auburn, the area where many Civil Rights leaders grew up and came together to plan actions. This is a really fascinating chat about a place that doesn’t get a lot of attention from tourists, the American South, and I highly recommend checking out Caroline’s book when it publishes this fall.
Outline of This Episode
- [3:45] Atlanta in the early 20th century
- [5:50] What Sears meant to the South
- [8:00] What Atlanta was like in the ‘20s
- [15:22] After Sears
- [18:22] The rise of Ponce City Market
- [26:16] What else to see around the Market
- [29:13] How Caroline became interested in the South
- [32:45] Caroline’s book
Resources Mentioned
Connect With Stephanie
Featuring the song “Places Unseen” by Lee Rosevere.
More info and photographs for this episode at:
https://historyfangirl.com/atlantas-ponce-city-market/