The war between the US Army and the Native American confederation during the war of 1812 is a buried story in an often-overlooked event, yet its impact on the history of North America is profound. The leading figures on both sides of the war, Shawnee Chief Tecumseh and US Army General William Henry Harrison, had come of age in the struggles over what is today called the Midwest United States, and both understood that losing the war would mean losing the future they imagined for their people. In this episode, Ben & Bob do a deep dive on the story behind that war with Peter Stark, author of the incredibly accessible book, Gallop Toward The Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison’s Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation (Random House, 2023).

Peter Stark is an adventure and exploration writer and historian who was previously a correspondent for Outsidemagazine. His previous book, Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America’s Founding Father, was named a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize in 2019. You can follow him on Instagram at @peterstark_adventure_historian.

This is a rebroadcast of episode #383, which originally aired on August 28, 2023. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

The affordable housing shortage in many American cities is making urban life more difficult for all of us. But the problem of housing is not a new one, and history has some valuable lessons for those looking for solutions. In this episode, historian Tom Hanchett joins us to talk about his new book, Affordable Housing in Charlotte: What One City’s History Tells Us About America’s Pressing Problem and the truths, myths, and ironies of government subsidized housing in the United States.

If you enjoy this episode, check out Tom’s previous appearances on our show in episode 159 and episode 4.

This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

In the late 18th century, tens of millions of buffalo lived in North America. By the mid-1880s, they were on the brink of extinction. For the white settlers who sought to “conquer” the American west, and the Native people whose way of life depended on them, the plight of the American Buffalo was more than a story of one species of animal. As Dayton Duncan writes in the prologue of his new book Blood Memory, the buffalo has “emerged as an embodiment of the nation’s contradictory relationship with the natural world: venerated and mercilessly destroyed, a symbol of both a romanticized frontier and the callous conquest of a continent.” In this episode, Dayton joins us for a conversation about the Buffalo (aka American Bison) and how the story of one animal can tell us so much about American history.

Dayton Duncan is an Emmy award-winning writer whose most recent collaborations with filmmaker Ken Burns are the book Blood Memory: The Tragic Decline and Improbable Resurrection of the American Buffalo (Alfred A. Knopf, 2023)and the new documentary The American Buffalo (2023) which is available right now at pbs.org.

If you enjoyed this episode, check out our previous conversation with Dayton Duncan in RTN #229 on Benjamin Franklin.

This episode originally aired as episode 285 on October 2, 2023. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Jon Grinspan has done something remarkable: in his new book, Wide Awake, he tells a thoroughly researched and brilliantly crafted story that may change your understanding of the origins of the American Civil War. In this episode, Jon joins us for a conversation about the Wide Awakes, the anti-slavery youth movement that played an instrumental role in electing Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and took part in some of the first acts of violence between pro and anti-slavery Americans in 1861. Jon also discusses the ways that the past and present interact in powerful ways, and how politics can evolve, step-by-step, into violence.

To quote Jon’s recent article in The Smithsonian: “The most consequential political organization in American history….began when a few working-class kids designed a costume, which grew into a movement and ultimately an army. And it ended with a civil war.”

Dr. Jon Grinspan is a curator of political and military history at the National Museum of American History. His book Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force that Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War was released on May 14, 2024 from Bloomsbury Press. Click here to order your copy!

You can hear Jon’s previous appearance on The Road to Now in episode #220 Processing the Past w/ John Grinspan.

This is a rebroadcast of RTN #306, which originally aired on May 13, 2024. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

For half a century, the US-Soviet rivalry pitted the two most powerful nations in human history against one another other in a conflict that had the potential to end civilization. The fact that the Cold War ended without the doomsday scenarios so many had predicted is testament to the power of good diplomacy, and good diplomacy only happens when you have good diplomats.

In this episode we speak with Jack Matlock, a diplomat whose 35 years in the State Department culminated in his selection by Ronald Reagan to serve as US Ambassador to the Soviet Union in the final years of the Cold War, where he played a key role in transforming US-Soviet relations.

Last week, the Trump Administration cut over 1,350 positions in the US State Department, many of them held by dedicated, knowledgeable and experienced foreign service experts who have sacrificed a great deal to serve our country abroad. We hope that by sharing our conversation with Ambassador Matlock, you’ll better appreciate the crucial work done by our diplomatic corp and why we’d all be better off if the Trump administration reconsidered its drastic cuts to the state department.

This is an abridged version of RTN episode #50, which was recorded live at Middle Tennessee State University and originally aired on March 28, 2017. An unabridged video version of this episode is available on our YouTube page by clicking here. This reair was edited by Ben Sawyer.

FBI agent Robert Hanssen was one of the most damaging spies in US history. From 1979 to 2001, Hanssen delivered some of the United States governments’ most sensitive secrets to Soviet and Russian agents, who used them to not only undermine US national security, but to identify and execute individuals who were working with the FBI. And despite an awareness of spies working within the FBI, Hanssen managed to operate for more than two decades before finally getting caught.

In this episode we speak with CBS News’ Major Garrett, whose new podcast Agent of Betrayal: The Double Life of Robert Hanssen, explores Hanssen’s decision to spy on the US and how he managed to operate for so long without being caught. A thoroughly researched history with all the turns of a great true crime podcast, we think you’ll enjoy Agent of Betrayal, available on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

This episode originally aired as episode 287 on October 16, 2023. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Hannah Arendt witnessed the rise of Nazism in Germany and her groundbreaking works, including The Origins of Totalitarianism, sought to understand how regular people could be seduced by horrendous ideologies such as antisemitism and fascism. In this episode, Ben speaks with documentarian Jeff Bieber, whose new film Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny, documents Adendt’s life as an intellectual, refugee and, eventually, an American citizen whose concerns about power remain as relevant today as they were half a century ago.

Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny premiered on PBS on June 27 and is available to watch on pbs.org by clicking here.

For more on Jeff Bieber’s work, check out his website: JeffBieberProductions.org.

This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Kathleen DuVall joins Ben & Bob for a discussion of her Pulitzer Prize-winning book Native Nations: A Millennium in North America (Random House, 2024) and how understanding North American history from both Native and non-Native perspectives helps us better understand our shared story. We also discuss her work with Ken Burns on his upcoming documentary on the American Revolution.

Dr. Kathleen DuVall is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Previous episodes mentioned in this conversation:

-#183 The History of the Lumbee Indians w/ Malinda Maynor Lowery (also available here on YouTube)

-#5 Tara Houska & Joe Genetin Pilawa on Native American Culture & History

This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer