The American Attic

Welcome to a new episode of the American Attic! Presented by the Sacramento Historical Society and hosted by Eric Sweigert, join us as we explore history and those that work tirelessly to preserve and promote it. In today’s episode, we sit down with the California State Railroad Museum Director Ty Smith, who’s passion for the past spans over two decades and includes historical and museum positions...

Welcome to a new episode of the American Attic! Presented by the Sacramento Historical Society and hosted by Eric Sweigert, join us as we explore history and those that work tirelessly to preserve and promote it. In today’s episode, we sat down with local historian, author and speaker, Christina Richter, who’s second book Placer County Past & Present is currently available. If history was a so...

Welcome to a new episode of the American Attic! Presented by the Sacramento Historical Society join us as we explore history and those that work tirelessly to preserve and promote it. With a social following higher than the Smithsonian, Madrid’s Prado Museum and the SF MOMA, the folks at the Sacramento History Museum are leveraging our community’s diverse stories for audiences both near and far. I...

Welcome to a new episode of the American Attic, presented by the Sacramento Historical Society, where we explore California's hidden history and those that preserve and promote it. In this episode, we are joined by Sacramento's official City Historian, Marcia Eymann. From the corridors of the Center of Sacramento History to colonial Williamsburg and back again, Eymann guides us through a career de...

Step into the fascinating world of history with The American Attic podcast. In this captivating episode, join our host Eric Sweigert as we delve into the rich social history of Sacramento, California, with returning guest Steve Avella. Steve, a renowned historian, professor at Marquette University, and published author, brings his expertise and passion to the fore, guiding us through a captivating...

Welcome back folks to another episode of the American Attic, where we explore the past through expert-led, dialogue-driven discussions of California history, and beyond. In this episode, we're joined by author Norman Hile to discuss his recently-published memoirs of his experience in the Vietnam war, Keeping Each Other Alive . Mr. Hile, retired attorney, served in the US Army from 1968 to 1971, in...

In this episode of the American Attic, returning guest Dr. Jim Armstead walks us through the conflict in Ukraine as we approach the one year anniversary of the country's invasion from neighboring Russia. Dr. Armstead is a retired professor of strategy and international law from the U.S. Naval War College. Additional highlights from his career working at the juncture of diplomacy & internationa...

In this episode of the American Attic, we sit down with a local ambassador of the past who's current efforts at sharing historical insights are surpassed only by his ability to assume the characters and mannerisms of some of the figures he portrays. Along with reenacting early Californian miners, our guest is a writer and history docent at Deer Creek Hills Preserve in Sacramento's East County. Alo...

If you've been to Sacramento, California; or Kalamazoo, Michigan; or the Museo Internationale della Ceramica in Northern Italy; there's a decent chance you've seen her work. In this episode of the American Attic, we sat down with the artist responsible for the César Chavez Memorial in Sacramento and a host of other works across California and beyond. Along with her current clay portrayal of Sacram...

Asking questions that might surprise us is what we do here at the American Attic. In this episode, the Sacramento Historical Society was able to sit down with a dedicated detective of the past and professor of history at Marquette University. Dr. Steven Avella is an author and accomplished historian whose travels include diving deep into the Vatican archives as he explore the complex collision of...

In this episode of the American Attic, host Eric Sweigert explores the active world of print journalism with veteran columnist and McClatchy Opinion Editor for the state of California, Marcos Bretón. Through a narrative sprinkled with first-hand accounts, Bretón provides an up close and personal portrait of journalism prior to the Internet era as well as a thorough look at the current landscape in...

In this episode of the American Attic, host Eric Sweigert sits down with UC Davis professor Victoria Juharyan to discuss the collison of art, politics and dissent seen in Eastern European history. Such a launchpad takes listeners through stories seldom heard and explores the role art plays in society as well as what is risked by artists who dare to take on the powers that be. As a guide through th...

Explore events in Ukraine with help from the decades worth of diplomatic, scholarly and hands-on experience possessed by Dr. James Armstead. In this episode of the American Attic, host Eric Sweigert sits down with the professor of Strategy and International Law to discuss the current conflict in Ukraine as well as a ranging and globetrotting background spanning faculties at Stanford and the US Nav...

History gets wet in this episode. The date? January 24, 1848. The place?  Along the banks of the American river in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Join us as we encounter con men, fortunes won and lost, California’s first millionaire, and an event that quite literally put California on the map. All this and more is told through the lens of veteran park historian and re-enactor Ed Allen who’s ability...

Like a gray barnacle on the side of some big blue whale, Alcatraz sits silent and imposing amidst the whitecaps of the San Francisco Bay. And if walls could talk (On Alcatraz they do!) you would here the tale of when in 1969, American Indians occupied this famous ex-prison for 19-months in the longest lasting occupation of a federal facility by native protestors in American History. In a new podca...

On October 17, 1989 a quiver ran through the spine of California’s Loma Prieta fault. What was but a tiny shift in the tectonic forces at work in the Pacific rim caused $6 billion in damage, took the lives of over 50 people, and forever altered the landscape of communities across the Bay Area. In this episode, the earthquake is explore through the lives of those that lived it. From participants in...

It will be an illiterate society indeed, that only acknowledges a past free from blemish and in that spirit this episode explores the life and times of a Californian hobo, rancher, seal hunter, an almost nobody, and later, one of the most prolific American writers of the 20th century. And there is much to discover in the life of Jack London from his years embezzling oysters from the under the nose...