Prof. Christa Dierksheide & Prof. Nick Guyatt, ‘Jefferson’s Wolf: A Founding Father’s Troubling Answer to the Problem of Slavery’ (Harvard University Press, 2026)
“The wolf is a metaphor for race war, and we mean race war on a genocidal scale.” We release this episode at a historic moment. This Saturday, 4 July 2026, marks the semiquincentennial of America's fo...
4 Juli 55min
Dr. Elsa Devienne, '"Paper or Plastic?": The Forgotten Movement to Ban Polystyrene in the US and the (Lost) Battle of Perception (1980s to today)'
“What happened? At one point, we were really close to banning polystyrene. What happened?”In this episode, we’re joined by Dr Elsa Devienne (Assistant Professor, School of Humanities and Social Scienc...
24 Juni 37min
Dr. Caroline Johnston, 'Rocky Mountain Extractivism in Washington'
This episode explores ‘carbon cowboys,’ the creation of A Blueprint for Conservative Government (1980), and an emerging historical concept: ‘extractive-statism.’Dr Caroline Johnston is a political, en...
20 Maj 41min
Dr. Patrick Griffin, 'The American Revolution and Global Empire'
“Whether we like it or not, the American Revolution is kind of central to the idea of American civic life, and very central to American notions of sense of self. So, that's critical—and it has been th...
13 Maj 39min
Annual Pitt Professor Beth Bailey, 'Making Change: Why the US Army Matters'
"Of course, it's an institution of social change. Because it has to manage all of the social changes that are taking place in society—because it's pulling people in." In this episode, we're joined by ...
30 Apr 34min
Prof. David Farber, 'The War on Drugs'
“What makes one drug or another useful to politicians?” David Farber asks. At the seminar, Farber presented new work on the late twentieth-century “war on drugs” in the United States—what it was, how ...
15 Apr 30min
Dr. Erin Shearer, 'Enslaved Women, Infanticide, and a Feminist History of Harm: A New Direction in Slavery Studies'
N.B.: This episode describes sexual violence and graphic bodily harm.(With sincere apologies for the re-upload due to a technical issue.) “We’re still, as a society, so apprehensive about ascribing to...
1 Apr 31min
Prof. Eliga Gould, 'Union and Disunion: The Turbulent History of the United States' Founding Treaty'
When we think about the founding documents of the United States, two likely come to mind: the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. But perhaps not the third — the Treaty of Paris (1783), ...
6 Mars 42min
