Today is the opening ceremony of the 2022, Beijing Olympic Games. It seems like it was just yesterday that Beijing controversially hosted the Summer Olympics in 2008. Now, rather than a global focus on the PRC government persecution of Tibetans in Tibet, it is the Uighurs in Xinjiang who are facing dire odds. I personally …
Three years ago I talked to my dad’s uncle, Fr. John Baumann, about community organizing and his role in founding PICO (now Faith in Action International). It was a great chance to get to know my family better and hear about some of his amazing experiences building an organization to help people. From the original …
We are looking at the Spanish Civil War in my 20th Century History Class and it still seems remarkable to me that Franco remained in power and pivoted to an internationally respected (or at least tolerated) status. Here is a conversation I had with an expert on Spain on the Hour of History Podcast:
In my US history class we are watching the film Harriet which brings up a lot of questions about slavery and the Underground Railroad. I had a couple great podcasts on the subject that remain relevant supplements to the heartbreaking story of people who fought hard for their freedom from slavery. You can hear my …
Some of the greatest conversations I had on the Hour of History Podcast were about the Camino de Santiago. I walked the Camino Ingles in 2018 and look forward to someday returning to Spain to walk additional routes. If you are curious about the Way of St. James, there are tons and tons of resources. …
In Fall 2019, I decided to take a leave of absence from my history PhD candidacy to search for a K-12 teaching job. In returning to K-12 education after three years in higher education, I knew how important finding the right school was and I wanted to focus all my resources on my search, which …
I will start looking back at all of the episodes I recorded for the Hour of History Podcast, so they are searchable not only on Youtube but also this website. Let’s start with my conversation with Roger Moorhouse about his book on the Nazi invasion of Poland and the start of World War II.
One of my smaller projects was the Hour of History Cities Podcast. I recorded short informational lectures based on items that defined important cities in the world. The most popular, it seems, is my discussion of El Chino de la Charada in Havana. There are some cool sources on this out there, but I haven’t …
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! The first ever Hour of History episode was an experimental conversation about the origins and history of the patron saint of Ireland, who is the inspiration for the celebrations that take place all around the world on March 17. We came a long way from that first episode, and re-released it …
Just watched “The Dig” on Netflix and it reminded me of a fun conversation I had with Dr. Courtnay Konshuh on the Hour of History Podcast. We talked about Anglo-Saxons and where archaeology meets history and art. I still haven’t read Beowulf, but I will someday!