Podcast
BackStory
Hosted by BackStory · EN
BackStory is a weekly public podcast hosted by U.S. historians Ed Ayers, Brian Balogh, Nathan Connolly and Joanne Freeman. We're based in Charlottesville, Va. at Virginia Humanities.
There’s the history you had to learn, and the history you want to learn - that’s where BackStory comes in. Each week BackStory takes a topic that people are talking about and explores it through the lens of American history. Through stories, interviews, and conversations with our listeners, BackStory makes history engaging and fun.
15episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Anatomy of a Geo-Block
Aug 1400:01:44Tap to summarizeIn a world where episode content shouldn't be heard everywhere, only one thing stands between that and total disaster... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcribe →All About Geo-Fencing
Aug 1300:01:44Tap to summarizeThis episode is all about the fascinating world of geo-fencing. This practice allows content distributors to either allow or prevent digital consumers from accessing their content, based on their location in the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcribe →Amazing video episode
Jun 1800:01:44Tap to summarizeAmazing video episode Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcribe →Test Audio Episode
Jun 1800:58:26Tap to summarizeTest Audio Episode Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcribe →Test Episode
Oct 5, 202300:01:23Tap to summarizetest episode Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcribe →Test Episode
Oct 4, 202300:01:17Tap to summarizeTest Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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331: The End of the Road: BackStory and the History of Finales in America
Jul 3, 202001:19:45Tap to summarizeOn this final episode of BackStory, Nathan, Brian, Joanne and Ed explore different kinds of finales throughout American history. They also consider what it’s like being a part of their own finale and how finales can sometimes lead to new beginnings.
Transcribe →Teaser: BackStory and the History of Finales in America
Jun 30, 202000:06:21Tap to summarizeCoach Tony Bennett knows a thing or two about big finales. He’s the head coach of the men’s basketball team at the University of Virginia. This is a clip from Brian's conversation with Coach Bennett about the power of sports and how you have to be able to accept the outcome of a big game, whether it’s a buzzer-beater win or a heartbreaking loss. The full episode is coming to you this Friday, July 3.
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330: Best of BackStory: The Time the People Picked
Jun 26, 202000:51:13Tap to summarizeAs BackStory nears the end of its production, we’ve asked our listeners to call in with moments from the show’s history and compile their very own “Best of BackStory.”We got some great responses covering a range of topics, each of them meaningful to the present moment in their own way.So in this best of BackStory, we present three of our listener’s favorite interviews from the show. You’ll learn about the early U.S. Postal Service, and hear from residents of Hamlet, North Carolina as we explore the painful memory of a 1991 tragedy. Then, you’ll discover the long evolution of the Confederate flag’s design.
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Introducing: Seizing Freedom
Jun 24, 202000:18:39Tap to summarizeComing Feb 2021…In most history classes, students learn that the Emancipation Proclamation and Union victories “freed the slaves.” But ending slavery in America required much more than battlefield victories and official declarations. Black people battled for their own freedom, taking incredible risks for a country that had actively denied their right to it. And after the Civil War, they made freedom real by organizing for equality and justice.On Seizing Freedom, you’ll hear stories of freedom taking and freedom making, in the words of those who did both. Drawing on stories from diaries, newspapers, letters, and speeches, we’ll recreate voices that have been muted time and time again.This excerpt is from the first episode of the series. It tells the story of those who escaped slavery to enlist with the Union Army—an army that wasn’t particularly interested in having them.Subscribe to the entire series here.
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