Mainely History

Ashley Rattner, a scholar of early American utopian movements, discusses The Testament of Ann Lee, a recent biopic of the 18th century founder of the Shaker movement, whose three remaining members live in Sabbathday Lake in Maine. 

Andrew Holman discusses the infamous World Heavyweight Championship boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston held in Lewiston, Maine in 1965. 

Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai, Chief Historian at the Massachusetts Historical Society--America's first and oldest state historical society--hosts Ian and Tiffany for this special road show episode about the creation of the oldest historical society in the United States. 

James Melcher returns to the show to discuss the Pine Tree State's history of electing liberal Republicans, and the 20th century political coalitions making that not only possible, but common. 

Renowned historian of the Great Awakening Douglas Winiarski discusses the major role southern Maine played in the origins of American Evangelical Protestantism. 

Tis the season for our Christmas bonus episode, featuring returning film historian Vaughn Joy and a discussion of The 12 Dogs of Christmas, a movie about a fictional Maine town that outlawed dogs during the Great Depression.  

Gilded Age historian Gideon Cohn-Postar returns to the show to discuss the Netflix Series Death by Lightning, which dramatizes the election and assassination of James A. Garfield, and includes a major focus on Maine's own James G. Blaine. 

Amy Fluker is the guest for this Halloween discussion of Civil War hauntings, the marketing and reception of ghost stories, and which states are the most haunted.

Tiffany and Ian discuss the founding of the International Appalachian Trail, which now extends from Maine to Morocco, with one of its early architects, Don Hudson. 

Three organizers of the November 2024 Descendants Walk in York discuss the practice of public history and commemoration of tragic local history, in this case York's role in the 1724 massacre at Norridgewock. 

Jonathan Hayes, a breeder, musher, and historian of Seppala sled dogs discusses the history of Maine's own breed of Siberian Husky, descended from Togo, a famous canine participant in the 1925 Serum Run to Nome, Alaska.

Joel Lefever and Erin Tewksbury join Tiffany, Ian, and a live audience at the Old York Historical Society to talk about the history of the Old York Gaol, and how it transformed from a prison to an icon of local history and, eventually, tourism. 

Joe Hall joined Tiffany, Ian, and a live audience at the Auburn Public Library for a conversation about the project to map and commemorate the Wabanaki Pejepscot Portage. 

Elizabeth DeWolfe returns to talk about the life of Jane Tucker "alias Agnes," an undercover detective hired to spy on a Kentucky congressman's mistress caught up in one of the most notorious scandals of the Gilded Age. 

Robert Cray, historian of war and memory, discusses the history and commemoration of the locally famous "Lovewell's Fight" of 1725 with Tiffany and Ian.

Jason Newton starts off Season 3 by discussing the era of industrial scale logging in Maine's northern forests.

Film historian Vaughn Joy triumphantly returns for another end of year bonus episode, this time assessing a genre-mixing Christmas Western directed by Maine's own John Ford.

Marine Biologist Gina Lonati returns to the pod to discuss Maine's most endangered marine mammal.

Author Sharon Kitchens discusses the Maine places that shaped the career of the "King of Horror" Stephen King, and his influence on the Pine Tree State.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows joins the show to discuss the history of Maine's state flags as voters decide whether to bring back the old "Pine Tree" flag.

Jack Furniss, historian of Civil War era party politics, discusses why Maine Republican Hannibal Hamlin made an attractive vice president for Abraham Lincoln in 1860, why he was dropped from the ticket in 1864, and what a Hamlin administration might have looked like.

Rebecca Brenner Graham returns to the pod to discuss Frances Perkins's little-known work aiding refugees from Nazi Germany.

Catherine Burns discusses the history behind Maine's 1875 redaction of parts of the state constitution dealing with public lands and obligations to Wabanaki nations.

Genevieve LeMoine of Bowdoin College's Peary MacMillan Arctic Museum discusses the controversial contest to reach the North Pole.

Elizabeth DeWolfe discusses the tragedy, trial, and media sensation surrounding the death of a young Biddeford mill worker named Berengera Caswell in 1849.