Now & Then

How has Puerto Rico shaped American history? How does the national response to Hurricane Fiona reflect the complex relationship between Puerto Rico and the rest of the United States? Heather and Joanne discuss Puerto Rico’s historical trajectory, from Spanish colonization, to the 1900s Insular Cases, to the cultural impact of Rafael Hernández Marín’s music and West Side Story.  Join CAFE Insider t...

How has American immigration policy shifted over our national history? What can these changes show about how the U.S. defines “us” and “them”?  Heather and Joanne discuss the politics and prejudices surrounding the two 1790s Naturalization Laws, the Immigration Act of 1924, the 1965 Hart-Celler Act, and the current Republican rhetoric about migrants at the Southern border.  Join CAFE Insider to li...

How do Americans view the British monarchy? What role have England’s Kings and Queens played in helping to define democracy in the United States? And what can the stateside reaction to Queen Elizabeth II’s death tell us about America and the United Kingdom today? Heather and Joanne discuss moments from the reigns of the three longest-serving British monarchs: King George III, Queen Victoria, and Q...

When have American leaders confronted particularly hostile political opposition? How can fighting back against an unjust party help the nation? And what might the history of these back-and-forths say about the recent vibe shift in the Democratic Party?  Heather and Joanne discuss other moments where politicians pushed back, from Massachusetts Representative Anson Burlingame’s willingness to duel S...

How have Americans viewed personal debt over the course of history? What can the morality and functionality of debt tell us about the debate over President Bident’s student loan forgiveness program?  Heather and Joanne discuss the history of debtors’ prisons in early America, the rise of bankruptcy laws after the Civil War, and the Cold War origins of federal student loans.  Join CAFE Insider to l...

Who gets to decide the future of reproductive rights?  In this encore presentation of a Now & Then episode originally broadcast in September 2021, Heather and Joanne discuss the history of abortion from the colonial period to the present: the surprising availability of abortion until the mid-19th century, the physician-led campaign to ban abortion, and the GOP’s decision in the early 1970s to embr...

How have vacations shaped American democracy? What can travel reveal about identity and national culture? And how does the history of tourism reflect the uncertainty of travel today?  Heather and Joanne discuss the Grand Tour in early America, the rise of the post-Civil War “See America First” movement, and the efforts by Black motorists to remain safe during the mid-20th century.  Join CAFE Insid...

How do board games reflect America? How do debates over politics and identity show up in popular games? And how have these games shifted along with the nation? Heather and Joanne discuss the development of the American board game, from the influence of the Game of the Goose in Early America, to the pre-Civil War origins of the Checkered Game of Life, to several impactful 1960s games.  Join CAFE In...

How do Americans respond to taxation? What do trends around taxation say about American culture and values? And how can the history of tax policy help us to understand the recently-passed Inflation Reduction Act?  Heather and Joanne discuss the legacies of the 1765 Stamp Act, the introduction of the income tax during the Civil War, and the tax-slashing ideology of 1920s Treasury Secretary Andrew M...

What happens when there are gaps in the historical records of some of America’s most seismic political events? How do historians try to piece together those mysteries? And how might these question marks help to contextualize the missing Secret Service texts from January 6th?  Heather and Joanne discuss the mysteries surrounding the 1804 Burr-Hamilton Duel, the 1865 Hampton Roads Conference, and th...

Heather and Joanne are off this week, so we’re showcasing an episode from another Vox Media Podcast Network show: “The Milk of Life,” from Gastropod. On Gastropod, hosts Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley explore the history and science behind everyday foods. Past episodes have examined everything from the evolution of the cookie to the surprising impact the coffee bean has had on world history. In...

How have American militias shaped the nation? And why do ‘militia movements’ keep returning to the fore of our national politics?  On Now & Then, Heather and Joanne discuss the role of militias in the 1786 Shays’ Rebellion, during the tumultuous Reconstruction years, and in the 1990s ‘Modern Militia Movement.’  Join CAFE Insider to listen to “Backstage,” where Heather and Joanne chat each week abo...

What are the origins of the Second Amendment? And what can America’s painful racial history illuminate about our national relationship to guns?  On this special Live Taping of Now & Then, Heather and Joanne talk to Carol Anderson, professor of African American Studies at Emory University and author of The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America.  The trio discuss how the recent spate of...

Following the news of Rudy Giuliani’s inebriated advice to Donald Trump on election night, Heather and Joanne dive into the historical role of alcohol in American politics. How have the norms around alcohol shifted — and how has that impacted our history? Heather and Joanne cover Franklin Pierce’s alcoholism, Warren Harding’s Prohibition-era hypocrisy, and the 1970s reckonings over alcohol in Cong...

Heather and Joanne react to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. How did we get here? What does the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs signal for the future of women’s reproductive rights and broader civil rights in America? What kind of unique perspective do women historians bring to understanding this moment? Join CAFE Insider to listen to “Backstage,” where Heather and Joanne chat each week about the...

On this encore episode of Now & Then, originally aired in June 2021 amid a Republican filibuster of an independent commission investigating January 6th, Heather and Joanne discuss the history of congressional commissions, from the investigation of the 1856 caning of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, to the 1871 Ku Klux Klan hearings, to 1954 back-and-forth between Senator Joseph McCarthy and t...

What are the political purposes of nostalgia? Why does the GOP idealize the American past? And what can this backward-looking perspective give or take away from our collective future? On Now & Then, Heather and Joanne discuss the role of nostalgia in American political history, from Puritan Jeremiads, to the 1913 Gettysburg and Fort Wagner reunions, to the emergence in the 1970s of a cultural obse...

Why have NFTs captured the American imagination? What can the recent instability in the NFT market tell us about the history of speculative bubbles?  Heather and Joanne put the NFT craze in context with other American financial booms & busts, from the Panic of 1792, to the 1890s Yukon Gold Rush, to the late 1990s dot-com bubble.  Join CAFE Insider to listen to “Backstage,” where Heather and Joanne...

Why are Americans so preoccupied with so-called “cancel culture”? What are the lines between accountability and cancellation? And what drives citizens to stand against objectionable statements? On this final episode in a three-part series on free speech, Heather and Joanne discuss the fall from grace of Loyalist politician Thomas Hutchinson during the Revolutionary period, the suppression of the G...

What have been the gravest threats to a free press over the nation’s history? And how can the past tell us how to safeguard our access to information today?  On this second episode in a three-part series on free speech, Heather and Joanne discuss the 1837 murder of abolitionist journalist Elijah P. Lovejoy, the role of Joseph Pulitzer in the creation of the independent press, and the rise and fall...

How has the federal government limited and protected free speech rights over the course of American history? How have citizens responded when Washington has limited their speech rights? And what can Elon Musk’s commentary on online free speech tell us about the difficult lines between free speech, disinformation, and political power?  In this first installment of a three-episode series on free spe...

Heather and Joanne are off this week, so we’re showcasing an episode from another Vox Media Podcast Network show: “How the 1918 Flu Pandemic Ended,” from The Weeds. Hosts Dara Lind and Dylan Matthews often explore the roots of our current political issues, from healthcare, to immigration, to housing.   In this installment, originally aired in January, host and Senior Vox Correspondent Dylan Matthe...

How has America historically defined physical disabilities? How have disability rights activists achieved hard-fought wins? And how does the current debate over mask mandates and pandemic restrictions leave out those with disabilities or chronic illness?  Heather and Joanne discuss the impact of pensions for disabled war veterans in the Revolutionary and Civil War periods, the interlocking histori...

How have Jewish Americans fought for their identities? And how have other American groups used Jews to define themselves? White House celebrations of the recent Passover holiday have sparked conversations over how Jewish identity interacts with broader American self-definitions.   Heather and Joanne discuss the early American contention that indigenous Americans were the Lost Tribes of Israel, the...

Who should support the needy in American society? The news is filled with controversies over the use and misuse of philanthropy, from Mackenzie Scott’s giving drive, to Elon Musk tax avoidance claims, to GoFundMe campaigns.  Heather and Joanne look at historical debates over philanthropy, from colonial community support and “warning out” laws, to Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth,” to the relationship...