How did a small town south of Denver emerge as the center of evangelical capitalism after World War II? Historian Dr. William Schultz explains how evangelicals' faith intertwined with a specific interpretation of Americanism, especially during the Cold War era, and how this allowed them to transition from the margins of society to the epicenter of conservative dialogue. About our guest: William Schultz is a historian of American religion with an interest in the intersection of religion, politics...
Nov 25, 2025•1 hr 30 min
It's a special podcast here at Reckoning. Early American historians Dr. Liz Covart, Dr. Michael Hattem, and Dr. Craig Bruce Smith joined me to live stream Ken Burns' new series The American Revolution and answer questions from people around the world. It's kind of like a Director's Commentary, only if the director was actually four people with degrees in history. This was a blast. About our guest: Dr. Liz Covart is a historian of the American Revolution, and the creator and host of the award-win...
Nov 23, 2025•2 hr 13 min
Houston, we have a podcast. Today, Apollo 13 author Jeffrey Kluger drops in to talk about the Apollo missions, what really made it on the film, and his new book, Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story. About our guest: Jeffrey Kluger, editor at large, oversees TIME's science and technology reporting. He has written or co-written more than 40 cover stories for the magazine and regularly contributes articles and commentary on science, behavior and health. Kluger is the co-author, wit...
Nov 19, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 166
Puerto Rico is the oldest colony in the world, something that must change, says Ed Morales. Today Ed drops in to talk about the history of Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican diaspora, and how colonialism has hurt the island over the last 500 years. About our guest: Ed Morales is an author and journalist who has written for The Nation , The New York Times , The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and the Guardian . He was staff writer at The Village Voice and columnist at Newsday. He is the author of Fant...
Nov 17, 2025•1 hr 15 min
This week historian Oscar Winberg joins in to talk about the origins of All In The Family and how the politics of the 1970s were filtered through television's biggest show. About our guest: Dr. Oscar Winberg is a postdoctoral fellow at the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies and the John Morton Center for North American Studies at the University of Turku working on modern political history and mass media. He holds a PhD in history from Åbo Akademi University. In the United States, he is affilia...
Nov 12, 2025•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 164
Have you ever wondered what else was happening during the American Revolution? It turns out that the conflict was waged far beyond the shores of North America. Historian Richard Bell joins in today to talk about the unexpected participants in and ramifications of the American Revolution across the globe. About our guest: Richard Bell received his PhD from Harvard University and his BA from the University of Cambridge. His research interests focus on American history between 1750 and 1877 and he ...
Nov 10, 2025•1 hr 22 min
Toe pick! If you don't love The Cutting Edge, something is seriously wrong with you. This week Dart Adams and Paul Gagliardi drop in to talk about the history behind the 1992 cult classic and why we love it so damn much. About our guests: Dart Adams is a historian, journalist and a lecturer from Boston, MA. His work has appeared in various online & print publications including Complex, NPR, Mass Appeal, Okayplayer, DJ Booth, Hip Hop Wired, The Urban Daily, The Vinyl Factory, uDiscover Music,...
Nov 07, 2025•1 hr 36 min
This week legendary historian Dr. Karen Cox drops in to talk about her life, her work, and advise for historians and students as we enter this new era. About our guest: Karen L. Cox is an award-winning historian and a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. She is the author of four books, the editor or co-editor of two volumes on southern history and has written numerous essays and articles, including an essay for the New York Times best seller Myth America: Historia...
Nov 05, 2025•1 hr 49 min
Dr. Craig Bruce Smith and I break down the trailer for the upcoming film, Young George Washington About our guest: Craig Bruce Smith is Professor of History at National Defense University in the Joint Advanced Warfighting School (JAWS) in Norfolk, VA. He authored American Honor: The Creation of the Nation’s Ideals during the Revolutionary Era and co-authored George Washington’s Lessons in Ethical Leadership . Smith earned his PhD in American history from Brandeis University. Previously, he was a...
Nov 02, 2025•38 min
This week Jelani Cobb drops in to talk about Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, what we don't see onscreen, the promise of Barack Obama, and the rise of Donald Trump. Plus, we preview his new book, Three or More is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here, 2012-Present . This is a powerhouse episode. About our guest: Jelani Cobb joined the Columbia Journalism School faculty in 2016 and became Dean in 2022. He has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2015. He received a Peabody Award for his 2020 PBS Fro...
Oct 30, 2025•42 min
Today Dr. Julia Brock joins in to talk about how hunting transformed and was transformed by the Modern South. We talk about dimensions of race, class, and sex and how they informed land stewarship and environmental conservation in the early twentieth century and how those changes affect us today. About our guest: Dr. Julia Brock is Associate Professor of History at the University of Alabama.
Oct 28, 2025•1 hr 3 min
This week Dr. John McManus joins in to talk about how WWII films have evolved over time, including our picks for best and worst movies ever made about the war. About our guest: John C. McManus is Curators’ Distinguished Professor of U.S. military history at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T). This professorship is bestowed by the University of Missouri Board of Curators on the most outstanding scholars in the University of Missouri system. McManus is the first e...
Oct 23, 2025•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 157
This week my friend Kevin Gannon drops in to talk about his career in history education, how education has changed, what to do about A.I., and the role of social media as a scholar. This is a cool conversation with one of the coolest dudes I know. About our guest: Dr. Kevin Gannon is the Director of the Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence (CAFE) and Professor of History at Queens University of Charlotte . From 2014-22, he served as Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching a...
Oct 20, 2025•1 hr 24 min
For 13 days beginning on October 16, 1962 the world teetered on total nuclear destruction. Today, Dr. Renata Keller joins in to talk about the Cuban Missile Crisis, how it is depicted in the film 13 Days, and how the events played out in Latin America. This is a deep dive into arguably the most consequential two weeks in world history. About our guest: Dr. Renata Keller specializes in Latin American and Cold War history. Her second book, The Fate of the Americas: The Cuban Missile Crisis and the...
Oct 16, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 155
Comanche Chairman Forrest Tahdooahnippah joins in to talk about Comanche history, culture, and so much more. We had a chance to talk about the legal relationships between Tribal nations and the United States, the importance of language preservation, what it’s like to lead a Tribe, thoughts on how Comanche people have been portrayed on film, and how historians and others can conduct ethical scholarship in Indian Country. This was a really wonderful conversation and I’m so thankful to the Chairman...
Oct 13, 2025•1 hr 10 min
This week Kate Sheppard and Colin Colbourn return to ask if Notting Hill is the greatest romcom of its generation. About our guests: Dr. Kathleen Sheppard earned her PhD in History of Science from the University of Oklahoma in 2010. After a post-doctoral teaching fellowship at the American University in Cairo, she arrived at Missouri S&T in the fall of 2011. She teaches mainly survey courses on modern Western Civilizations, which is arguably one of the most important courses students in 21st...
Oct 08, 2025•1 hr 46 min
This week Historians At The Movies goes Down Under to talk about 1986's Crocodile Dundee and we are doing it with the founders of Historians At The Movies: Australia: Chelsea Barnett and Joel Barnes. This movie is everything HATM was designed for: taking something fun and then pointing out everything we can take from it. This was a blast to record. About our guests: Dr Chelsea Barnett is a gender and cultural historian whose work explores the representation of masculinities in Australian popular...
Aug 20, 2025•1 hr 43 min
This week Tyler Anbinder joins in to talk about his experiences advising on Gangs of New York as well as his work tracing the Irish diaspora. About our guest: Tyler Anbinder is a specialist in nineteenth-century America and the history of immigration and ethnicity in American life. His latest book, published in March 2024 by Little, Brown, is entitled Plentiful Country: The Great Potato Famine and the Making of Irish New York . That project's digital history component, created with research assi...
Aug 14, 2025•1 hr 52 min
Today my friend, Dr. Eric Becklin, defended his dissertation. And around here, we celebrate the wins. I talk about the process of graduate school and how important friends are to getting you to the finish line.
Aug 12, 2025•11 min
Dr. Karen Cox drops in to talk about the Trump Administration's plans to reinstall two former Confederate monuments, along with the Lost Cause mythology, and how we think about the Civil War. About our guest: Karen L. Cox is an award-winning historian and a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. She is the author of four books, the editor or co-editor of two volumes on southern history and has written numerous essays and articles, including an essay for the New York ...
Aug 08, 2025•1 hr 6 min
This week Dr. Jacob Lee joins in to talk about the real Jeremiah Johnson—and why Redford’s version may be a fantasy. About our guest: Jacob Lee is a historian of early America and the American West, focusing on colonialism and borderlands. His first book, Masters of the Middle Waters: Indian Nations and Colonial Ambitions Along the Mississippi (Harvard University Press, 2019), embedded intertwined Native and imperial histories in the physical landscape of Middle America, a vast region encompassi...
Aug 06, 2025•1 hr 34 min
Jason and Thomas recap their voyages to destinations unknown: San Diego and Minnesota's Boundary Waters, plus Thomas and Jason discuss the excitement of fall semesters on campus.
Aug 05, 2025•1 hr 8 min
This week we return to the vault to bring you Ridley Scott's unexpected western masterpiece: Thelma and Louise.
Jul 30, 2025•1 hr 18 min
This week Craig Bruce Smith and Robert Greene II join in to talk about our favorite dystopian films, why this film slips under the radar, and what it was like when Craign recently met Arnold himself.
Jul 24, 2025•1 hr 16 min
This week John Wyatt Greenlee, Colin Colbourn, and Alan Malfavon flyover to talk about James Gunn’s Superman, the need for heroes in everyday lives, and casting the rest of the DCU. About our guests: Alan Malfavon is Assistant Professor of History at California State University San Marcos. His first book, Men of the Leeward Port: Veracruz’s Afro-Descendants in the Making of Mexico , under contract with the University of Alabama Press, focuses on the understudied Afro-Mexican population of Veracr...
Jul 16, 2025•1 hr 19 min
This week social anthropologist Dr. Judith Scheele joins in from France to talk about her decades of research into the diverse and fascinating peoples and places of the Sahara Desert. About our guest: Judith Scheele is professor of social anthropology at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, EHESS). She has spent almost two decades living in and researching Saharan societies. The author of three previous books, she now lives in Mars...
Jul 14, 2025•55 min
Looking back at the last seven years of HATM, along with my plans for the future.
Jul 13, 2025•22 min
This week, two of my favorite people in the world join in to talk about Brad Pitt’s new film, F1 while they try to convert me into a Formula One racing fan. Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s start our engines.
Jul 10, 2025•1 hr 13 min
We're enjoying the holiday this week so we thought we'd bring one back from the vault. This week Dr. Craig Bruce Smith and Dr. Robert Greene II and I talk about Mel Gibson's The Patriot, the role of constructed memory in national identity, and the ethics of making historical dramas.
Jul 03, 2025•1 hr 31 min
This week military historian Dr. Jonathan Carroll drops in to talk about Black Hawk Down and his new book Beyond Black Hawk Down: Intervention, Nation-Building, and Insurgency in Somalia, 1992-1995 . About our guest: Jonathan Carroll is a former officer in the Irish Defence Forces who earned a PhD from Texas A&M University. He is an associate professor of military history at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.
Jun 26, 2025•1 hr 52 min
