The 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Japan and the end of World War II coincide with heightened nuclear tensions in 2025 between India and Pakistan, Israel and Iran, and the United States and Russia. It’s time to examine how the decisions of 1945 influence the decisions of today. How did we get here? Do these threats matter? What is life like under a mushroom cloud?

Host: Andrew J. Falk

Past is Prologue is a humanities podcast that provides the public with the background behind the day's headlines, and offers much-needed context to understand the significance of current events that people observe around them. It seeks to contribute to the public conversation in an engaging, informative, accessible, and constructive way. It's produced by the Department of History in the College of Arts & Humanities at Christopher Newport University in Virginia. We welcome your inquiries and feedback at pastpodcast@cnu.edu.

The 80th anniversary of VE Day, marking the end of the Second World War in Europe, offers an opportunity to think about how – and why – we remember and commemorate the war in the ways we do. We’ll take a tour of countries – the United States, Britain, Russia, France, Poland, and Germany – to see how they have held onto differing national memories of a shared conflict. If we look at how others choose to remember the war, we may find that World War II offers meaning for us today as we debate history education, federal funding to cultural and research institutions, and what it means to be patriotic.

Host: Andrew J. Falk

Guest: Brian Puaca

Past is Prologue is a humanities podcast that provides the public with the background behind the day's headlines, and offers much-needed context to understand the significance of current events that people observe around them. It seeks to contribute to the public conversation in an engaging, informative, accessible, and constructive way. It's produced by the Department of History in the College of Arts & Humanities at Christopher Newport University in Virginia. We welcome your inquiries and feedback at pastpodcast@cnu.edu.

The past, as revealed on paper documents, does not always tell the entire story. In this case, the people of the past literally narrate our history. To commemorate Black History Month, we will go back to the 1960s and 1970s and listen to the voices of a community of Black students to discover that integration proved to be far more complex than many recall from textbook coverage of the civil rights movement. By doing so, we all gain a more complete picture of our national history.

Host: Andrew J. Falk

In collaboration with Laura Puaca

This episode is produced in collaboration with the Hampton Roads Oral History Project at Christopher Newport University, which mentors students to document the impact of the civil rights movement on residents living in the Historic Triangle of southeast Virginia. Its director, Dr. Laura Puaca, studies the history of social movements in the United States and collaobrates with community partners at the Newsome House Museum and Cultural Center as well as the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center. Researchers are encouraged to visit the Project’s website to hear more stories and to view digitized documents, yearbooks, and photographs.

The Hampton Roads community members who shared their experiences include Valerie Scott Price, James Lovett, Dwight Spratley, Eula Branch, Janice Larrimore, Brenda Gibson Stewart, Norline Jenkins-DePieza, and Lyndia Johnson.

Students who conducted interviews include Dane Christensen, Devereaux Davis, Nicole Flautt, Aidan Fritz, Cole Fuchs, Sydney Goodman, Keelyn Graves, Orson Lange, Allison Silverman, Dayman Parrish, Jack Perry, Christina Richardson, Dorian Vitale, and Marlena Williams.

And the student-historians responsible for research, narrative writing, and editing are Matthew Johnson, Mia LaRochelle, and Jessica Spencer.

Special thanks to archivist Matt Shelley at the Trible Library, where you can access all the archived interviews online.

Past is Prologue is a humanities podcast that provides the public with the background behind the day's headlines, and offers much-needed context to understand the significance of current events that people observe around them. It seeks to contribute to the public conversation in an engaging, informative, accessible, and constructive way. It's produced by the Department of History in the College of Arts & Humanities at Christopher Newport University in Virginia. We welcome your inquiries and feedback at pastpodcast@cnu.edu.