When most of us think of the earth, we imagine going “north” as going “up.” Modern maps, however, obscure many geographic realities, including the existence of an Arctic world, which unites the US, Canada, Russia, Norway, Greenland and other countries into a distinct geographic sphere. In this episode, Bob and Ben are joined by historians Heidi Bohaker and Alison Smith to discuss their work developing a course on the history of the Arctic at the University of Toronto. The conversation covers the diversity of indigenous groups in the region, the conquest of the Arctic by modern states, and the many ways that climate change may impact the world. As it turns out, there’s a lot to learn from a “top down” history of the earth.
Dr. Heidi Bohaker is Associate Professor of History at the University of Toronto, whose specialties are Native American history and digital history. She has a broad interest in the types of archives and categories of information both states and non-state societies kept and keep about their people.
Dr. Alison Smith is Professor History at the University of Toronto and a specialist in the history of the Russian Empire. She has published several articles and two books, the most recent of which is For the Common Good and Their Own Well-Being: Social Estates in Imperial Russia(Oxford University Press: 2014). You can read her series of blog posts on "The Case of the Dead Cheese Master" at the Russian History Blog.
The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. For more on this and all other episodes, visit our website: www.TheRoadToNow.com.
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In this episode of RTN Theology hosts Bob Crawford and Keith Larson share personal reflections on the life of North Carolina 3rd District Congressman Walter B. Jones who passed away on February 10th, 2019.
Jones served Eastern North Carolina in Congress and the State Legislature for over 34 years. He became a household name in the run up to the war in Iraq when he led a campaign to change the name of French fries to Freedom Fries. A couple of years into the war, he attended a funeral for a fallen soldier and had a spiritual conversion, becoming the first Republican in Congress to come out against the war. A fiercely independent politician and a devout Catholic, Jones' faith framed the way he viewed issues.
Bob and Keith both shared a personal relationship with the Congressman. Keith interviewed Jones many times over the years as a radio host at WBT in Charlotte, North Carolina. Bob and Walter B. Jones first became friends through conversations about politics, but their friendship grew much deeper following Bob’s daughter’s illness.
Bob and Ben talk with Lisa Fine about the ways that viewing history through the lens of gender can help us understand the past. Lisa explains the origins of women’s history, the impact that gender theory had on the field of history, and why it’s important to think about both masculinity and femininity when considering gender. This is the third installment in our methodology series, which also includes RTN #119 Karl Marx and History and Historical Narratives and Power (available on our Patreon page).
Dr. Lisa Fine is Professor of History at Michigan State University who specializes in US Labor, Working Class, and Women’s and Gender History. She is the author of several articles and two books, the most recent of which, *The Story of Reo Joe: Work, Kin, and Community in Autotown, USA*, (Temple University Press, 2004) received multiple awards. She was also one of Ben’s mentors at Michigan State and, many years ago, provided Bob with a reading list of good books to help direct his love of history.
The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. For more on this and all episodes, visit our website: www.TheRoadToNow.com. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.
The influenza strain that hit the world in 1918 killed between 50 and 100 million people. It was not the first flu to have such an impact on humanity, and it also may not be the last. In this episode we talk with John Barry about his research on the history of influenza, the current state of preparedness, and the unexpected ways that influenza has shaped modern history.
John Barry is the author of multiple award-winning books including the New York Times Best Seller The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History (Penguin, 2005).
Click here to get The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History as an audio book on libro.fm. Road to Now listeners can go to libro.fm & get a 3-month membership for the price of one (3 audiobooks for just $14.95) w/ promo code RTN. You can also check out our libro.fm playlist, which features books by past RTN guests!
The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. For more on this and all episodes, check out our website: www.TheRoadToNow.com.