Why Now? Archives - Public Seminar

Podcast

Black Children, White Schools

Episode 71: A conversation with historian Noliwe Rooks about democracy, education, and her new book Integrated: How American Schools Failed Black Children

April 9, 2025 • by Claire Potter

On November 14, 1960, 6-year-old Tessie Prevost woke up and put on one of her prettiest dresses. Like Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, and Ruby Bridges, Tessie was a very special little girl. Along with hundreds of other Black children, the New Orleans Four, as they would forever be known, had taken ...

Podcast

Fagin!

March 19, 2025 • by Claire Potter

It's about antisemitism. That’s right—a topic that was apparently unspeakable in the United States, even two years after American and Soviet soldiers liberated the first Nazi death camps. But antisemitism was unspeakable—although not as much so as homosexuality. Crossfire, another 1947 movie, was originally about a homophobic murder and rewritten as ...

Podcast

Arise, Ye Workers From Your Slumbers

Episode 68: A conversation with Maurice Isserman about American radicalism, past and present, and his new book, Reds: The Tragedy of American Communism

February 19, 2025 • by Claire Potter

For years now, those of us who are paying attention have heard a range of political positions, from those held by moderate Democrats to socialism, described by MAGA Republicans as something called “the Left.” Sometimes “the Left” is simply invoked by the shorthand “they,” as in: “They tried to assassinate ...

Podcast

The Great American Crack-Up

Episode 67: Julian Zelizer asks us to reimagine political division as a good thing in a conversation about his new book, In Defense of Partisanship

February 10, 2025 • by Claire Potter

Back in 2016, like about a million other fans, I was listening obsessively to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway show, Hamilton: An American Musical. Unlike a lot of stage-door Johnnies, I am a historian of the United States. So, when my friend and colleague Renée Romano called to suggest we edit a collection ...

Podcast

We Shall Not Be Moved

Episode 62: David Greenberg on nonviolent resistance, the legacy of an iconic civil rights organizer, and his new book, John Lewis: A Life

November 4, 2024 • by Claire Potter

There is no question that Donald Trump, a former President who is on the ballot next Tuesday, November 5, is not only a man in love with violence, but one who also understands violence as a way to get what he wants. On May 1, 1989, Trump took out a ...

Podcast

When We Lose, We Win

Episode 60: Talking with historian Brenda Wineapple about civil rights, culture wars, the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” trial and her new book, Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted A Nation

October 10, 2024 • by Claire Potter

In 2016, white evangelical Christians showed up at the polls in force for Donald J. Trump, part of a diverse movement that defied expectations to sweep him into the White House. In the past decade, scholars and journalists have spilled a lot of ink on what seemed initially like a ...

Podcast

The Ten-Dollar Founding Father

Episode 55: Historian William Hogeland on Alexander Hamilton, debt, taxes, visionaries, and his new book, The Hamilton Scheme: An Epic Tale of Money and Power in the American Founding

June 5, 2024 • by Claire Potter

There is so much in William Hogeland's book, whether you are a Hamilton fan, love the complexity of Early America, or (and I know some of you are out there) whether you are just a finance nerd and think nonstop about the national debt....

Podcast

Typewriter Combat

Episode 54: A conversation with historian Ronnie Grinberg about her new book, Write Like A Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals

May 23, 2024 • by Claire Potter

A conversation with historian Ronnie Grinberg about her new book, "Write Like A Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals"...

Podcast

Write Like a Man

Episode 54: Ronnie Grinberg on her new book, Write Like a Man

May 14, 2024 • by Claire Potter

In Episode 54 of Why Now?, host Claire Potter interviews Ronnie Grinberg about her new book, Write Like a Man....

Podcast

Nobody Else Has My Eyes

Episode 53: A conversation with Nell Irvin Painter about her new book, I Just Keep Talking: A Life in Essays

April 30, 2024 • by Claire Potter

Episode 53: A conversation with Nell Irvin Painter about her new book, I Just Keep Talking: A Life in Essays...

Podcast

Goodbye, Beaver Cleaver

Episode 52: A conversation with historian Becky Nicolaides about The New Suburbia: How Diversity Remade Suburban Life in Los Angeles after 1945

April 19, 2024 • by Claire Potter

A conversation with historian Becky Nicolaides about her new book, The New Suburbia: How Diversity Remade Suburban Life in Los Angeles after 1945...

Podcast

MAGA Is the Newest, and Oldest, American Myth

Episode 51: A conversation with American Studies scholar Richard Slotkin about his new book, A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America

April 12, 2024 • by Claire Potter

Slotkin examines the history of the two Americas that exist side-by-side today, with their clashing and common myths, two American cultures that will meet at the ballot box in November 2024 to decide the fate of American democracy....

Why Now?

Black Children, White Schools

Episode 71: A conversation with historian Noliwe Rooks about democracy, education, and her new book Integrated: How American Schools Failed Black Children

Fagin!

Arise, Ye Workers From Your Slumbers

Episode 68: A conversation with Maurice Isserman about American radicalism, past and present, and his new book, Reds: The Tragedy of American Communism

The Great American Crack-Up

Episode 67: Julian Zelizer asks us to reimagine political division as a good thing in a conversation about his new book, In Defense of Partisanship

We Shall Not Be Moved

Episode 62: David Greenberg on nonviolent resistance, the legacy of an iconic civil rights organizer, and his new book, John Lewis: A Life

When We Lose, We Win

Episode 60: Talking with historian Brenda Wineapple about civil rights, culture wars, the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” trial and her new book, Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted A Nation

The Ten-Dollar Founding Father

Episode 55: Historian William Hogeland on Alexander Hamilton, debt, taxes, visionaries, and his new book, The Hamilton Scheme: An Epic Tale of Money and Power in the American Founding

Typewriter Combat

Episode 54: A conversation with historian Ronnie Grinberg about her new book, Write Like A Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals

Write Like a Man

Episode 54: Ronnie Grinberg on her new book, Write Like a Man

Nobody Else Has My Eyes

Episode 53: A conversation with Nell Irvin Painter about her new book, I Just Keep Talking: A Life in Essays

Goodbye, Beaver Cleaver

Episode 52: A conversation with historian Becky Nicolaides about The New Suburbia: How Diversity Remade Suburban Life in Los Angeles after 1945

MAGA Is the Newest, and Oldest, American Myth

Episode 51: A conversation with American Studies scholar Richard Slotkin about his new book, A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America

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