American Rambler with Colin Woodward
Based in Richmond, Virginia, American Rambler discusses history, music, film, politics, and pop culture. The show is hosted by Colin Woodward, a historian, writer, and archivist. Episodes feature long form interviews that looks at people's upbringing, education, career path, and creative work. Along the way, Colin talks with guests about how artists and intellectuals must navigate the changing technological, creative, and political waters in America. it's a show that talks about everything from the Civil War to Netflix.
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Episode 196: The Kid Detective with Michael Scott
02/11/2021
Episode 196: The Kid Detective with Michael Scott
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 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.
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Episode 195: James Oakes
01/28/2021
Episode 195: James Oakes
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, Lawrence Levine, Charles Sellers, Charles Royster, William Gienapp, Albert Raboteau, and Leon Litwack. Before his dissertation was even done, Jim had a contract with Knopf for a book that was based on years of archival research at Duke and Chapel Hill. That book, The Ruling Race, took on the paternalism thesis put forth by Eugene Genovese in his landmark Roll, Jordan, Roll. Jim talks with Colin about his moves from New York to California and back again. And back again. Also, he discusses his time at Princeton and Northwestern as well as his new book, The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution, which you can purchase here:
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Episode 194: Michael Gorra
01/10/2021
Episode 194: Michael Gorra
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 only came to the idea of being an academic later. As an undergrad at Amherst, he encountered the no-nonsense novelist Robert Stone and decided writing fiction wasn't for him. After decades of teaching, a prolonged stay in Germany in the late-90s helped open Michael's mind about the importance of place and history in writing. It certainly helped him when examining Faulkner. As The Saddest Words shows, few American writers have done as well as Faulkner has in exploring the intersection of history and geography in his "postage stamp" in Mississippi.
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Episode 193: Country Boy: The Roots of Johnny Cash
01/03/2021
Episode 193: Country Boy: The Roots of Johnny Cash
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 performance in Kingsland in 1994. Wherever he was in his life, Arkansas kept Cash grounded. No one has quite sounded like Johnny Cash, and his music came from a unique place: Arkansas.
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Episode 192: Alan Farrell
12/22/2020
Episode 192: Alan Farrell
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 College (where Colin went, too) before earning his Ph.D. from Tufts. But perhaps his most formative experience was serving in the Special Forces during the Vietnam War, where he stomped through the jungle with a copy of The Iliad in his trouser pocket. In Vietnam, he employed his knowledge of French with the local Hmong, who were engaged in counterinsurgency operations. America's counterinsurgency strategy in Vietnam was formulated earlier in the decade in large part by General Sam Wilson, with whom Alan worked at Hampden-Sydney. The two were friends and fellow combat veterans. Alan still speaks highly of "General Sam." Alan also talks with Colin about parachuting at 30,000 feet, his love of poetry, the hell that is college administrative work, and the pleasures of reading Greek epics in the original.
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Episode 191: Jean H. Baker
11/16/2020
Episode 191: Jean H. Baker
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 subjects have included Mary Todd Lincoln, Margaret Sanger, the suffragettes, the Know-Nothings, and less-than-stellar 15th president, James Buchanan. Jean's days as a historian have included everything from teaching at Harvard and at a Maryland prison, to carpooling with nuns. She also reflects on what it's like being a female historian in a traditionally male-dominated industry. What has she learned from Mary Todd Lincoln? And how does President Buchanan show us that lifelong experience doesn't always translate into success in the nation's highest office? In the intro, Colin celebrates the end of the Trump era by playing some secret audio footage.
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Episode 190: David Dixon
11/02/2020
Episode 190: David Dixon
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 1840s. He could have been executed for treason, but he managed to escape to England. There, he continued fighting with others, including Karl Marx. In the 1850s, Willich moved to the U.S. and later joined the Union army. He proved a reliable and creative general, one of the best the North had in the western theater. He survived most of the major battles until a sharpshooter ended his military career in May of 1864. Willich survived and moved back home to Ohio after the war. However, his postwar career was not as exalted as his campaigns in Tennessee and Kentucky had been. David's previous book was The Lost Gettysburg Address, about Charles Anderson, a Civil War colonel and the governor of Ohio after the war. David talks about the challenges of working on a German subject as well his journey from a long career in marketing to becoming a full-time historian.
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Episode 189: Michael Scott and Friday the 13th
10/27/2020
Episode 189: Michael Scott and Friday the 13th
Happy Halloween! Movie guru Michael Scott returns to the podcast to talk about his love for the Friday the 13th films. How did a low-budget 1980 horror movie spawn a franchise and draw in millions of fans? Is it all about the hockey mask? As it turns out, Michael's first foray into the series was Friday the 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives, which led him to devour the rest of the "Jason Movies." Michael has also read a few books on our friend Mr. Vorhees, including Crystal Lake Memories, written by author Peter M. Bracke. As Michael notes, Jason not only inspired numerous splatter flicks, the Friday the 13th films influenced non-horror movies, too, such as the Terminator and Rambo series. And yet, it's been more than ten years since the last Jason movie. Has Hollywood given up, or does Tinseltown just need a few good ideas? Have no fear, Colin and Michael have some thoughts. And it turns out Danny McBride may be the man to revive the series. You can check out Michael at the popular Dana Buckler Show movie podcast: . Michael also has his own podcast, Adkins Undisputed, available at .
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Episode 188: John Lingan
10/07/2020
Episode 188: John Lingan
A native of Maryland, John Lingan's first book is Homeplace: A Southern Town, a Country Legend, and the Last Days of Mountain-Top Honky Tonk, which examines the northern Virginia town of Winchester. Winchester is known largely for two things: the Civil War and being the birthplace of Patsy Cline. But as John's book shows, just as compelling are the stories of more recent inhabitants, including chefs, writers, and store owners. Homeplace shows how people in 21st century South are trying to make a living in a region undergoing severe political and economic change. Homeplace builds upon John's other writings, which often explore music. Jeff Tweedy, NRBQ, Buddy Bolden, and Margo Price are just some of the subjects he has previously written about. Perhaps not surprisingly, his current book project centers on the classic rock staple Creedence Clearwater Revival.
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Episode 187: James MacDonald
09/28/2020
Episode 187: James MacDonald
Once again, Colin plays "Six Degrees of Court Carney," this time with fellow LSU veteran and historian James MacDonald. As is the case with Colin, James is a Damn Yankee who moved to the South as an adult and has never looked back. Oh, and like Colin, he married a southerner. James teaches at Northwestern State University of Louisiana in Natchitoches (pronounced "Nackadish"), a town so southern that it was the setting for the film Steel Magnolias. James talks about the teaching life, including how to cope with educating during the pandemic, wrestling with technology, what it's like to handle a 6-5 course load, and the lessons learned and not learned in graduate school. Also, James talks about growing up in New Jersey, visiting battlefields as a kid, his natural love of teaching, first-year grad school monasticism, and the unbearable heaviness of Phil Morgan's Slave Counterpoint.
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Episode 185: Carytown Blues
09/18/2020
Episode 185: Carytown Blues
American Rambler talks about some new albums he got at Plan 9 Records in in Carytown in Richmond. Carytown seems to be losing businesses steadily, but Plan 9, thankfully, is still open. Yesterday, Colin picked up music from Margo Price, Blaze Foley, King Curtis, and King Biscuit Boy. The band County Kitchen takes us out with the song "Devil Dog," set in the old blues town of Helena, Arkansas.
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Episode 186: Wayne Edmondson
09/06/2020
Episode 186: Wayne Edmondson
Wayne Edmondson is a high school teacher living in northern Louisiana. He and Colin are old friends and survivors of the LSU grad program in history. Colin stayed to finish his dissertation, but Wayne took a different path. In addition to studying at LSU, he's played in a rock band, been a sonar technician on a nuclear sub, surveyor in the Gulf of Mexico, funeral home assistant, disaster relief worker after Hurricane Katrina, and sweated out desert days as a contractor working on military bases in Iraq. Wayne talks about growing up in Louisiana, grad school, and seeing one of his professors nearly die at the podium. Wayne also discusses teaching, the benefits of being a morning person, and some strategies for motivating students (which sometimes involves doing lots of pushups).
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Episode 184: Tim Van Den Hoff
08/30/2020
Episode 184: Tim Van Den Hoff
It's fitting that Colin and Tim talked on the anniversary of the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. That's because Tim's recent documentary Monumental Crossroads (link below) examines the debate over Confederate memorials and the meaning of the Civil War in the South. Taking his camera to locations in Louisiana, Tennessee, Virginia, and Alabama, Tim's film interviews white and black people to understand their feelings about some of the most divisive symbols in the American landscape. Monumental Crossroads shows us a cross-section of the South, from a black artists and politicians to white members of Confederate groups as well as an African American "Confederate" in Asheville and Tennessee Civil War interpreters. Tim, a native of the Netherlands, makes clear that no society is free of racism (as in the case of the Netherlands' "Black Pete"), though some are better than others at confronting their troubled past. Colin and Tim discuss the difficulties surrounding racial healing amid a summer that has shown how deadly and divisive race continues to be. You can watch Monumental Crossroads here:
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Episode 183: John Jay Osborn, Jr.
08/24/2020
Episode 183: John Jay Osborn, Jr.
John Jay Osborn, Jr., is perhaps best known for his 1971 novel The Paper Chase, which was made into an Oscar-winning movie starring John Houseman (with whom John became friends). The book was based on John's experiences at Harvard Law School and centers on James T. Hart, a bright, ambitious, first-year student trying to balance his studies and tumultuous personal life. The book sold well and the film was a success, but John never abandoned the law. The Papers Chase, nevertheless, led to John spending 15 years in Hollywood as a scriptwriter and advisor. He worked on the TV adaptation of The Paper Chase as well as shows such as L.A. Law and Spencer for Hire. He also was the creator of the show The Associates, based on his second novel. In 2018, after a long hiatus, John published a novel about a troubled relationship called Listen to the Marriage. That book, too, is being made into a movie. John talks with Colin about his roots in New York, the Osborn family's flight to California, writing The Paper Chase, and his adventures in (and frustrations with) Hollywood.
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Episode 182: Chris Leahy
08/08/2020
Episode 182: Chris Leahy
Chris Leahy was a fellow traveler with Colin in his days at LSU. Since 2007, he's been a professor a Keuka College in upstate New York. He has a new book out, President without a Party: A Life of John Tyler (LSU Press, 2020). His biography began as a dissertation in Baton Rouge, where Chris studied under the imposing William J. Cooper (a previous podcast guest on American Rambler). Chris talks with Colin about his days at LSU as well as growing up in Baltimore and his time at Virginia Tech. Chris has been working on his biography for more than 20 years. Born in the first years of the American republic into a Tidewater planter family, Virginia's John Tyler isn't one of the better known presidents. But his career in politics serves as an example of how a man can find himself accidentally put into a position of power and then find he doesn't really belong in any political camp. Tyler might have been U.S. president, but he ended his life loyal to the Confederacy. He died in early 1862, just before taking his place in the Rebel Congress. Ultimately, what kind of a man was Tyler? And what can he tell us about the time in which he lived?
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Episode 181: Barclay Key
07/23/2020
Episode 181: Barclay Key
Barclay Key is a history professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He's a native of north Alabama, who was born into a working class family of farmers and textile workers. His father picked cotton before going to college and becoming a teacher. Barclay's Alabama roots help explain why he's a huge fan of Muscle Shoals area rockers Drive-By Truckers, whose music he has used in his history classes. Since graduating from the University of Florida, Dr. Key has traveled the world courtesy of Fulbright Scholarships that allowed him to teach in Poland and Mexico. He is back in Little Rock now, and earlier this year, Barclay published his first book, Race and Restoration: Churches of Christ and the Black Freedom Struggle. He talks about what it was like to grow up in that faith, and how the Churches of Christ confronted the problem of race in the mid-20th century. Barclay also talks with Colin about a new research project of his that examines a bombing in Little Rock during the civil rights era, and the investigation that wrongly put a black teenager in prison for the crime.
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Episode 180: Robert Gudmestad
07/17/2020
Episode 180: Robert Gudmestad
Robert Gudmestad is a native of Minnesota who teaches history at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. He knows Colin from his days as a grad student at LSU, where they both worked with the imposing figure of Charles Royster, the late scholar of the Early Republic, the Civil War, and colonial Vietnam. Bob is the author of two books, A Troublesome Commerce (2003), about the domestic slave trade, and Steamboats and the Rise of the Cotton Kingdom (2011). As he tells Colin, he never approached his career with much of a plan. He had a good job before he attended grad school. Even so, he decided doing history was a better fit for him. That journey took him to Richmond and then Baton Rouge, where he enjoyed good food, football, and the pleasures of a monastic academic existence. Recorded in early June, Colin and Rob talk about the then growing Black Lives Matter protests and the fate of Confederate monuments. They reflect on he eccentric side of professional historians, and discuss at length Bob's new research project, which looks at the role Union gunboats played in the western theater of the Civil War.
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Episode 179: Mark Doyle
06/29/2020
Episode 179: Mark Doyle
Mark Doyle is a professor of history at Middle Tennessee State University. A native of Oklahoma who now resides in Nashville, he has lived for extended periods in New Orleans, Boston, and Ireland. His latest book is The Kinks: Songs of the Semi-Detached. Mark and Colin talk about the historical and sociological background of the Kinks' golden period in the late 1960s and early 1970s. More specifically, they discuss how the brilliant and multi-faceted Ray Davies, the Kinks' main songwriter and singer, commented on the profound changes going on around him. In the process, he and the Kinks made classic albums such as Something Else, Village Green Preservation Society, Arthur, Lola, and Muswell Hillbillies. Mark and Colin also examine the challenges of doing a different kind of writing, namely, how historians trained in a doctoral program examine a pop culture subject. As Mark sees it, he didn't want to write a typical history of the band. And while interviewing someone in the Kinks would have been fun and exciting, talking to a famous musician won't necessarily add much to your story. The Kinks were a distinctly British band, but the subjects Ray Davies analyzed--urban renewal, alienation and economic anxiety, the rise of the suburbs, the expansion of the welfare state--were relatable to Americans, too. Ray's songs did not emerge in a vacuum. His art was born amid the changes going on in the postwar world all around him.
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Episode 178: Manisha Sinha
06/15/2020
Episode 178: Manisha Sinha
Manisha Sinha was born in India, but she moved to the U.S. to finish her education. Since graduating with a Ph.D. from Columbia--where she studied under Eric Foner--she has made an impact on the history world. Her first book, The Counterrevolution of Slavery (2000), based on her dissertation, was nominated for the Bancroft Prize. A few years ago, Politico named it as one of the ten books on slavery "you need to read." Her most recent book, The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition (2016) won the coveted Frederick Douglass Prize. Dr. Sinha stays busy. She lives in Massachusetts, but commutes to the University of Connecticut, where she is the Draper Chair in American History. She is hard at work on her next book, which examines the Reconstruction era. Manisha talks with Colin about the publishing field, what it's like to cut 1/4 million words form a manuscript, and her appearance on The Daily Show during the Obama years.
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Episode 177: Joseph Galloway
05/29/2020
Episode 177: Joseph Galloway
Joseph L. Galloway is the author of the 1992 bestselling book We Were Soldiers Once and Young, which was made into a hit 2002 movie starring Mel Gibson. The book was inspired, oddly, by a scene from the sequel to American Graffiti. Joe wrote We Were Soldiers with the help of Hal Moore (played by Gibson in the film), who was then a colonel. The book and movie examined the battle of Ia Drang, fought in November of 1965. It was the bloodiest battle of the war, and Joe Galloway saw it unfold. Joe has a new book out, , which he co-wrote with Marvin J. Wolf. Joe spent many years as a reporter, who traveled the globe, including time covering the Iraq War. In 2008, We Were Soldiers was named one of the . Joe has also been played by not one, but two Hollywood actors. And though Joe has experience with Hollywood, as he makes clear, he'll not be working with Oliver Stone any time soon. In the intro, Colin talks about the recent unrest, which happened in many cities this last weekend, including his home town of Richmond, Virginia.
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Episode 176: Heath Carpenter
05/21/2020
Episode 176: Heath Carpenter
Heath Carpenter, a professor of English at Harding University in Arkansas, is the author of The Philosopher King: T. Bone Burnett and the Ethic of a Southern Cultural Renaissance (2019). He is also a native Arkansan, who is friends with previous podcast guest Bonnie Montgomery (featured in his book). Heath has traveled widely, but his globe-hopping has only emphasized the importance of having strong roots in his home state. Musician and producer T. Bone Burnett has worked on such landmark soundtracks as Crazy Heart, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, and Cold Mountain and produced acts such as the Secret Sisters and Gregg Allman. His studio wizardry has changed the way Americans think about roots music. Colin talks with Heath about how his book combines elements of history, film, literature, and music in its exploration of southern identity. In doing so, they examine how much the South has and hasn't changed and how people's perceptions of it are often at odds with reality--sometimes, as in the case of Deliverance, horrifyingly so. Whatever you think of it, the South remains distinct and likes it that way. Arkansas has produced everyone from Johnny Cash and Al Green to Charlie Rich and Levon Helm as well as more recent acts such as The Gossip. Music remains one of its greatest exports. The state's unique blending of Delta blues, gospel, country, and rock and roll keeps musicians and fans interested. Also, it still has cotton fields, if that's your thing.
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Episode 175: Bob Dylan
05/09/2020
Episode 175: Bob Dylan
Dr. Court Carney returns to the podcast to talk about Bob Dylan. Court is not only a fan, he has taught a class on Dylan at Stephen F. Austin State University, where he is a professor of history. Court's interest in Dylan began when he listened to his dad's copy of Nashville Skyline thirty years ago. In grad school, he took a deeper dive into the Zimmerman catalog by absorbing such classics as Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks, and John Wesley Harding. Court has also been fascinated by the Dylan-Guthrie connection, which has taken him to archives in Tulsa to examine Guthrie's personal papers. Guthrie died in 1967, by which time Dylan had retreated to Woodstock, NY, to recover and reconceptualize his art and music. While in Woodstock, Dylan began recording with The Band. What emerged was a new kind of American roots music. In a country founded on legends and self-made men, Court and Colin examine the myth vs. reality of Dylan. They also tackle such questions as: how political was he? Is his Christmas album worth listening to? Was he really seriously injured in a motorcycle crash? And is "Rainy Day Women 12 & 35" a drug song? Dr. Carney explains all!
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Episode 174: Drew Prehmus
04/27/2020
Episode 174: Drew Prehmus
Not many undergraduates publish a book, but Drew Prehmus did. Drew grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, where he now lives. In 2004, he enrolled at Hampden-Sydney College, where he majored in English. In his sophomore year, he started work on a book with Sam. The project took seven years to complete. The result was General Sam: A Biography of Lieutenant General Samuel Vaughan Wilson. Colin chats with Drew about his background, work at Hampden-Sydney, and the seven years he spent on Sam’s biography. He also provides an inside look at being a student at Hampden-Sydney as well as reminiscences about certain professors, such as the late Victor Cabas.
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Episode 173: Michael Foley
04/19/2020
Episode 173: Michael Foley
Michael Foley lives in France, where he is a professor of history at University Grenoble Alpes. He might be far from home, but Mike is used to moving around. The son of a blue collar dad, his father's work took the family around New England and, briefly, into Pennsylvania. He grew up in the culture of Democratic politics and small town meetings, which has informed his later work. Yet, as an undergrad, he went to Florida to pursue a business degree. After "five miserable years" working in Boston in the late 1980s as an auditor for mutual funds, Mike, inspired by historians of the civil rights movement, got his Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire. There, he studied with Harvard Sitkoff. Since then, he has approached his work with an activist bent. His first monograph, Confronting the War Machine, was about resistance to the draft during the Vietnam War. His work on the 1960s won him the attention of Mad Men, which asked him to be a consultant to the show. He continues to write about politics. He also is a big music fan. In 2015, he published a book on the Dead Kennedys album for the popular 33 1/3 series. Now, he is writing a book on Johnny Cash's politics.
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Episode 172: Michael Scott
04/05/2020
Episode 172: Michael Scott
Move fanatic Michael Scott is a regular on the film podcast The Dana Buckler Show and a huge fan of the related podcast F This Movie! When he's not lending his expertise to an episode of "The 20th Century Movie Club," he's working in Utah as a prosecuting attorney. Mike talks with Colin about his career path in the justice system--beginning with his time at Emory University law school--and gives some recommendations about films he's been watching lately. He also lets us know which lawyer movies get the details right. Hint: his favorite legal flick may not be what first comes to mind. Mike and Colin share an early memory of Star Wars and talk about how the movies have changed in their lifetime. Are the movies better than ever? Have crowds killed the movie-going experience? And most important of all, will the movies survive?
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Episode 171: The Job Market for Ph.D.s, Part II
03/31/2020
Episode 171: The Job Market for Ph.D.s, Part II
This is part two of Colin's talk with Dr. Brent J. Steele of the University of Utah about the academic job market. Colin and Brent start out by walking us through the interview process, including the infamous Dinner, in which a candidate talks with the committee and tries not to order too many drinks and say something stupid. From there, they get into interview nightmares, which range from problems with technology to rude dinner and lunch companions, to phone calls from long-forgotten committee people. In the intro, Colin provides a Coronavirus update and debates whether anything we now know about the job market has been rendered moot by the pandemic. Happy April, y'all!
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Episode 170: The Job Market for Ph.D.s
03/25/2020
Episode 170: The Job Market for Ph.D.s
Dr. Brent J. Steele, head of the Political Science Department at the University of Utah (and loyal friend of the podcast) returns to American Rambler to talk about the (challenging? woeful?) state of the job market for Ph.D.s. Unfortunately the Coronavirus is only going to make harder an already daunting job search process. Is there hope for those wanting to land a tenure track position or just a good, stable job at some kind of research institution? 2020 may suck so far, but times have always been hard for scholars. And in Part I of this discussion, Brent and Colin talk about the many tricky turns in navigating the job market, from building your CV, to applying en masse, to getting that coveted first interview. What are grad students to expect when they are looking for work? More so, what might anyone expect who is trying to land a job at a college or university? Well, the good doctors are here to help!
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Episode 169: Megan Kate Nelson
03/14/2020
Episode 169: Megan Kate Nelson
A fascination with Game of Thrones inspired Megan Kate Nelson's new book, The Three-Cornered War, which examines the role of the Union, Confederacy and Native Americans in the southwestern theatre of the Civil War. It's Megan's third book. Now that she is writing full time, she shows no signs of slowing down. Megan is a native of the West herself, and to write The Three-Cornered War, she traveled to the places she describes in her book. She lives in Massachusetts, but she is still fascinated by the West she grew up in. She is already working on her fourth book, on the history of Yellowstone, which is slated for publication in 2022. Are you thinking about grad school? While they both have Ph.D.s, Colin and Megan talk about the difficulties of being on the tenure track and how one should maybe consider the option of "alt-ac" careers. What do you do with a Ph.D. if academia isn't for you? Megan has shown that there is life, and success, beyond the Ivory Tower. And you can start by deciding not to write for free anymore. You can find out more about Dr. Nelson at: http://www.megankatenelson.com/
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Episode 168: Bonnie Montgomery
02/29/2020
Episode 168: Bonnie Montgomery
She lives near Austin now, but musician Bonnie Montgomery is a native of Arkansas. Raised in a musical family in Searcy that owned a music shop, she started playing classical piano at a young age. Later, she picked up a guitar. After graduating with a graduate degree in music, she taught in China, lived in Nashville, and traveled overseas with the popular (though now defunct) Arkansas group The Gossip. She is known for her alt-country records, but it was an opera she co-wrote with a college friend that got her noticed. The subject: Bill Clinton, of course. With an opera to her credit, she soon turned to writing country songs. Her self-titled, full album debut, Bonnie Montgomery, was released in 2014. Her work won her an Ameripolitan award in 2016 and got the attention of the Outlaw Country community. In 2018, she released Forever, her second album, which combines country and classical elements and features a duet with Dale Watson. These days, you can find her playing not only with Dale Watson but Ray Wiley Hubbard and Rosie Flores. Bonnie made her first appearance on the Outlaw Country Cruise this year and lived to tell the tale. Music in this episode: "Joy" from Bonnie Montgomery; "Black County" from Bonnie Montgomery; "Goin' Out Tonight (with Dale Watson) from Forever; and "No More" from Forever. You can read more about Bonnie and buy her music at www.bonniemontgomerymusic.com.
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Episode 167: G. J. Meyer, Part II
02/22/2020
Episode 167: G. J. Meyer, Part II
Part two of Colin's talk with author and historian G. J. Meyer goes deeper into the writing life. It's an honest discussion of how the business works and how success is fleeting and difficult to predict amid the "sorry state of the American publishing industry." Jerry is working on a novel, so he and Colin discuss the literary influences that have made Jerry want to write fiction. For him, those included The Paris Review, Cormac McCarthy, Flannery O'Connor, and Annie Poulx. They also find time to discuss Faulkner, Walker Percy, Robert Penn Warren, and how Otto Von Bismarck turned out to be a not-so-great subject to write about.
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