Now & Then

On this episode of Now & Then, “Voting Rights: The Big Picture,” Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman talk about the history of voter suppression with Carol Anderson, professor of African American Studies at Emory University and author of One Person No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy and The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America. The trio discuss the conce...

On this episode of Now & Then, “The Rise of Bully Politics,” Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman revisit the 1980 presidential election between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. They reflect on how the rancorous contest signaled a rise in partisan aggression and dominance politics in American life. They also tie the type of bullying that emerged in full force in 1980 back to the 1850s and the...

On this episode of Now & Then, “Speakers of the House: Velvet Gloves and Iron Fists,” Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman revisit significant Speakers of the House and the development of the role in American politics. They reflect on legendary Speakers Henry Clay, Thomas Brackett Reed, and Tip O’Neill. In the process, they examine how Speakers leverage their influence over the legislative pr...

On this episode of Now & Then, “Split Party Politics,” Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman discuss cycles of in-fighting, tension and collapse in American political parties. They begin with the Federalists and their ill-fated Hartford Convention, explain the reconstitution of both the Democrats and Republicans during the early 1880s, and talk through the current political battles and demogra...

On this episode of Now & Then, “Government Debt Roulette,” Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman discuss the dynamics of the current political battle over raising the debt ceiling. Then, they offer an overview of debt in American history, from Alexander Hamilton’s belief in using debt to build the country, to how President Lincoln offset Civil War debt, to the politicization of the debt ceilin...

On this episode of Now & Then, “New York, New York,” Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman discuss the 20th anniversary of September 11th, 2001 attacks and the larger role of New York over the course of American history. How did the Dutch help lend the Big Apple its economic and cultural identity? Why isn’t New York the U.S. capital? How did newspapers transform NYC’s political power? Why are...

On this episode of Now & Then, “Abortion: Whose Choice?” Heather and Joanne discuss Texas’ Senate Bill 8, one of several controversial new “heartbeat” laws that limit access to abortion. They also talk about 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 d...

On this episode of Now & Then, “Climate Control,” Heather and Joanne discuss the climate crisis and moments of political conflict over the environment throughout American history. They talk about the impact of climate on colonists, the 19th-century origins of the National Park Service, the causes and effects of the Dust Bowl, and the post-World War II emergence of the environmental movement — from...

On this episode of Now & Then, “Attacking and Defending Voting Rights,” Heather and Joanne discuss the history of American voting rights and the antecedents to the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021. They look at New Jersey’s surprising history of female voting, the violence of the Know-Nothing Party, and the long congressional struggle to secure full suffrage for all Americans. Who...

On this episode of Now & Then, “Afghanistan & American Styles of War,” Heather and Joanne discuss the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the history of how America creates narratives around wars. They look at the divergent framings of the War of 1812, the Spanish-American War, and World War II. How does a democratic society based on consent utilize force? Which wars receive widespread approval? And h...

On this episode of Now & Then, “Treason(ish),” Heather and Joanne discuss the competing political narratives over accountability and punishment for the January 6th insurrection. They look back at past moments of conflict and examine the disparate ways in which former combatants integrated into American society: the Loyalists after the Revolutionary War, the Confederates after the Civil War, and a...

On this special episode of Now & Then, “A Backstage Peek,” listeners can hear Heather and Joanne’s conversations that are usually part of the CAFE Insider membership. “Backstage” is a special weekly bonus portion of the podcast where the hosts offer personal reflections on their historical scholarship and behind-the-scenes anecdotes of how each Now & Then episode comes together.  In the first inst...

On this episode of Now & Then, “Projecting America at the Olympics,” Heather and Joanne frame the current Tokyo Olympics alongside historical examples of American cultural diplomacy. They trace efforts to appeal to France in the Revolutionary Period, the rise of World’s Fairs, and the controversies that accompanied Jesse Owens’ 1936 Olympics dominance in Berlin and the 1968 Black Power salute by m...

On this episode of Now & Then, “The Human Toll of Infrastructure,” Heather and Joanne discuss the historical precedents for President Biden’s infrastructure proposals. What role did river infrastructure play in spurring the Constitutional Convention? What was the revolutionary impact of the Transcontinental Railroad and President Eisenhower’s championing of the Interstate highway system? What were...

On this episode of Now & Then, “Culture Wars,” Heather and Joanne discuss moments of dramatic cultural change in American history: pre-Civil War abolitionism, early 20th-century individualism, to our current reckoning over police brutality and history education. How do our pop cultural artifacts, from Uncle Tom’s Cabin, to P.T. Barnum’s problematic attractions, to Gone with the Wind, show the ways...

On this episode of Now & Then, “Judging the Supreme Court,” Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman discuss the recently-concluded Supreme Court term, and they place the Roberts Court in the context of other consequential Supreme Courts throughout American history, from the Marshall Court of the early 19th century, to the Taney Court and its infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857, to the progressi...

On this episode of Now & Then, “Creating Federal Holidays, July 4th to Juneteenth,” Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman discuss the recent debate over making Juneteenth a Federal holiday. Then, Heather and Joanne look at the earlier debates that accompanied the creations of July 4th, Columbus Day, and Election Day, with a focus on the economic, moral, and political considerations that went i...

On this episode of Now & Then, “Corrupting the Commonwealth,” Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman discuss recent reporting that the Trump Department of Justice subpoenaed the metadata of journalists and members of Congress. Heather and Joanne then look at three past reckonings over accusations of presidential corruption: Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson’s back-and-forth over the First...

On the fourth episode of Now & Then, “QAnon, Cults, and Cutlery,” Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman discuss the recent FBI assessment of QAnon as a violent domestic terrorism threat. They also reflect on the historical relationship between cults and the government, from the Salem Witch Trials, to the utopian Oneida Community, to the tragic saga of Jonestown.  Join CAFE Insider to listen to...

On the third episode of Now & Then, “Battling Over Critical Race Theory,” Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman discuss the current debate over Critical Race Theory and the development of American historical scholarship, from Parson Weems’s fables, to George Washington Williams’ pioneering histories of Black America, to Reagan-era controversies over “Western Civilization” courses, to the influ...

On the second episode of Now & Then, “Investigating Democracy,” Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman discuss the history of congressional commissions, following the Senate Republican filibuster of the proposed commission to investigate the January 6th insurrection. Heather and Joanne look back on investigations of the 1856 caning of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, the 1871 Ku Klux Klan...

On this first episode of Now & Then, “Entangling Alliances,” Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman discuss the emerging Biden Doctrine and the relationship between foreign and domestic policy throughout American history. Heather and Joanne focus on the French Revolution, Teddy Roosevelt’s progressive turn, and the cultural legacies of the Vietnam War as three moments from “then” that can parti...

Now & Then is a new podcast from CAFE hosted by historians Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman. Each Tuesday, they will break down the week in news and look back at historical parallels to help us understand our present. Along the way, they’ll introduce us to history’s influential and often-forgotten characters. New episodes drop every Tuesday starting June 1st. Learn more about your ad choi...