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_outlineIn 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. The road trip’s appeal called to everyone equally, but not everyone was treated equally. African Americans began using “the Green Book,” a guide to places that were friendly to them along their journey. In September, I met Tamiko Harvey, the travel blogger behind Passports and Grub, who actually took her daughter on a family road trip using the Green Book.
How Tomiko became interested in the Green Book
Tomiko and I met while touring the Civil Rights Trail in Birmingham, Alabama, where they actually have a Green Book on display there in the Civil Rights Museum. That really sparked her interest in learning more about the book, and she was able to purchase a copy on Amazon. As she says, we’re supposed to be living in a post-racial society, but of course that’s not true. So she wanted to see what it would be like traveling the Green Book today.
Why the Green Book was necessary
As Tomiko says, black people in the early 20th century had to plan out every detail of a road trip. They had to dress a certain way, they had to be sure of what time of day they would be traveling in certain areas, and they had to know their route precisely because a wrong turn could literally be deadly. It was a really planned and methodical process that we don’t even think about now. Black motorists had to think about where they were going to eat, where they were going to get gas, where they could use a restroom. A lot of these travelers were Civil Rights activists or business travelers. Leisure travel was not as prominent as we think of it today.
“Vacation and recreation without humiliation.”
The book was originally published in 1936 in New York, and as Tomiko says it became a sort of Yellow Pages for black travelers. It outlined friendly restaurants, gas stations, hotels, drug stores and barber shops that were safe during Jim Crow. It came about because Victor Green, the author, was having difficulty traveling. The book was circulated in black establishments, even in hotels and restaurants. And it was marketed with the tagline: “Vacation and recreation without humiliation.” About 15,000 copies a year were sold to black travelers. Brittany told me a great story about brothers divided over the revolution that you have to hear.
Tomiko travels the book
Tomiko and her family live outside of Nashville, Tennessee, and when her daughter had to go to Orlando, Florida for a cheering competition, she decided to take the book and see what it was like to travel through those Southern states for black people in the 1930s. As she says, they often had to go an hour or two out of their way just to ensure they were going somewhere safe. A lot of the places on the routes were actually people’s homes, old gas stations or even empty lots now. She said it added something like three hours to their trip to go out of the way. Her story, and the story of the book, is so fascinating. I highly recommend checking out this episode.
Outline of This Episode
- [2:52] How Tomiko became interested in the Green Book
- [8:27] What it was like to travel for black Americans
- [14:52] The book’s origins
- [21:15] How people got the Green Book
- [24:25] Tomiko decides to travel the book
- [34:20] The continued racism in America
- [40:40] How Tomiko got started writing about travel and food
- [42:42] What to eat in Nashville
Resources Mentioned
- Passports and Grub
- Birmingham and the Civil Rights Movement (my episode)
- Tomiko’s piece about the Civil Rights Museum
Connect With Stephanie
Featuring the song “Places Unseen” by Lee Rosevere.
More info and photographs for this episode at:
https://historyfangirl.com/traveling-the-green-book/