Ohio V. The World

Episode 14: “Ohio v. Suffrage” (19th Amendment) We celebrate 100 years of women’s suffrage in Ohio, with three amazing women: Lisa Wood, Emily Krichbaum and Megan Wood. Alex tells the entire history of suffrage in Ohio and America as we follow the journey to the eventual adoption of the 19th Amendment in 1919. Lisa and Alex discuss the life of Harriet Taylor Upton, Ohio’s most famous suffragette a...

Episode 13: “Ohio v. Conspiracy” (Roswell, the WaterCar, JFK) We sit down 3 guests and discuss three of Ohio’s most fascinating conspiracy cases. First we meet with author Ray Szymanski and we talk about the connection between the Roswell UFO incident in 1947 and Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Ray, who worked at Wright Patt for 38 years, has traveled the world investigating the a...

Episode 12: “Ohio v. Pollution” (Cuyahoga River Fire). Alex sits down with author and professor Dr. David Stradling to discuss the infamous Cuyahoga River fire of 1969. We analyze Cleveland’s role in the modern environmental movement by discussing David and Richard Stradling’s book, Where the River Burned. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UBWLHKO/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 We look at...

Episode 11: “Ohio v. Wealth” (John D. Rockefeller). We travel to Cleveland to tell the story of the richest man in the world, John D. Rockefeller and the infamous Standard Oil. Alex meets with Kevin Callahan of the Western Reserve Historical Society to discuss Rockefeller’s youth and building of the oil empire, Stndard Oil on the shores of Lake Erie. We also sit down with Cleveland attorney, Ben W...

Episode 10: “Ohio v. Murder 3.0” (Eliot Ness/Cleveland Torso Murders). It’s our annual true crime episode…Alex travels to Cleveland to meet with author Dr. James Badal and historian Becky McFarland about the career of famous Cleveland lawman Eliot Ness and the notorious Cleveland Torso Murders in the 1930s. Alex and Becky discuss Ness, the leader of the Untouchables, and his years in CLE as the Pu...

Episode 9: “James Traficant v. the World” Alex interviews LA filmmaker Eric Murphy about Rep. Jim Traficant of Youngstown, Ohio, the subject of his excellent 2016 documentary, “Traficant: Congressman of Crimetown”. Buy or rent it on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/ondemand/traficant). Stop what you’re doing and watch this movie. We follow the rise and fall of Youngstown’s hero, Jim Traficant, from his hi...

Episode 8: “Ohio v. Discrimination” (Colonel Charles Young) Alex travels to Wilberforce, Ohio and the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center to learn about the life of Colonel Charles Young. (https://www.ohiohistory.org/visit/museum-and-site-locator/national-afro-american-museum) We talk about history’s highest-ranking African American military officer until 1940 with author Brian Shell...

Episode 7: “Ohio v. Unemployment” (Coxey’s Army) Alex sits down with author Jerry Prout, political science professor at Marquette University, to discuss the first march on Washington by Coxey’s Army in 1894. Sparked by the economic depression, the Panic of 1893, Jacob Coxey and his army of unemployed men march from Massillon, Ohio to DC. We analyze why Coxey’s March for Jobs catches the nation’s i...

Episode 6: Ohio v. the Patriarchy (Madeline Pollard) Alex sits down with author Patricia Miller to discuss her hit new book, Bringing Down the Colonel. Miller’s novel tells the story of a sex scandal involving a young Cincinnati college student, Madeline Pollard, and a powerful Congressman, William Breckinridge that would grip the nation’s attention in the spring of 1894. The landmark case of Poll...

Episode 5: “Ohio v. the Cold War” (Curtis Lemay) Alex welcomes back Bruce Carlson, podcast host of “My History Can Beat Up Your Politics” (https://myhistorycanbeatupyourpolitics.wordpress.com/). Alex and Bruce travel through the first 25 years of the Cold War by chronicling the life of General Curtis E. Lemay from Columbus, Ohio. Lemay’s career was in the front row for Pearl Harbor, WWII in Europe...

Episode 4: Ohio v. Civil War (Edwin Stanton). Alex speaks with author Walter Stahr (www.walterstahr.com) about his acclaimed 2017 book Stanton: Lincoln’s War Secretary and the life of Stubenville, Ohio’s Edwin Stanton. Stanton, was the Secretary of War during the U.S. Civil War and a member of President Abraham Lincoln’s “Team of Rivals.” Stahr walks us through Stanton’s rise from a poor teen in E...

Episode 3: Ohio v. Black Power (Carl Stokes/Glenville Shootout). Alex travels to the Land to meet with historian/author Jim Robenalt about his awesome book Ballots and Bullets (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075TH4YNT/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1). We discuss Jim's book and how Cleveland became the center of the civil rights movement in the North. We journey through the 1960s in Clevel...

Episode 2: “Ohio v. Bootlegging” (George Remus) Alex travels to Cincinnati to meet with 3 historians from the Price Hill Historical Society about the “King of the Bootleggers”, George Remus. We follow his rise from a German immigrant to a high-powered lawyer in Chicago to becoming the most successful bootlegger of the Prohibition Era in the United States. We discuss 1920s Cincinnati, Remus’ busine...

Season 3, Episode 1: “Ohio v. the Moon” (Neil Armstrong). 3…2…1…liftoff to Season 3 of Ohio v. the World. We’re going on mankind’s greatest adventure from the Earth to the Moon with Wapakoneta, Ohio’s own, Neil Armstrong. Alex travels to Wapak to the Armstrong Air&Space Museum and hosts a roundtable discussion with 3 Armstrong experts. We discuss his early life in NW Ohio, his many near death expe...

Episode 15: “Ohio v. Punishment” (The Caning of Michael Fay) LIVE!!! It’s the Season Two finale and it’s our 1st live show. We chat with comedian Mark Lucas at the Columbus Podcast Festival live from the historic Garden Theatre. We’ll discuss the May 1994 caning of Michael Fay in Singapore for his alleged vandalism crimes. We analyze how this barbaric punishment of the 18 year-old Ohioan becomes a...

Episode 14: “Ohio v. Peace” (Dayton Peace Accords/Bosnian War) Alex tackles the complicated Bosnian War of the 1990s and the peace conference in Dayton, OH that finally brought war to an end in the former Yugoslavia. Alex is joined by OSU Professor of Eastern European history, Theodora Dragostinova, to break down how Ohio ended a war that cost the lives of over 100,000 people. We analyze the turbu...

Episode 13: “Ohio v. the South” (William Tecumseh Sherman) Alex travels to Lancaster, Ohio to the Sherman House Museum to meet with Frank and Laura Bullock. The Bullocks lay out the life and military career of General William Tecumseh Sherman, the main who conquered the South and ended the Civil War. The interview occurs at the Sherman House in downtown Lancaster, visit the museum (www.shermahouse...

Episode 12: “Ohio v. the ‘60s” Alex is joined by OSU History professor David Steigerwald and author Bill Shkurti to discuss the most turbulent decade of the 20th Century, the 1960s. We discuss the entire decade using Bill’s 2016 book “The Ohio State University in the Sixties” (purchase the book here https://ohiostatepress.org/books/titles/9780814213070.html) as a guide. We use OSU as a microcosm f...

Episode 11: “Ohio v. the Gilded Age” (John Hay). Alex sits down with award-winning author, John Taliaferro, to discuss the most interesting man of the late 19th Century, John Hay of Cleveland, Ohio. We dive into John’s book, “All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay From Lincoln to Roosevelt” (click here to buy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C4GLYP8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1) or...

Episode 10: “Ohio v. Slavery” (the Underground Railroad). Alex looks at the central role of Ohio in the Underground Railroad and the abolition movement to defeat African American slavery and the Fugitive Slave Act in the mid-19th century. We interview Mary Oellerman of the Kelton House, a “station” on the UGRR, in Columbus. (www.keltonhouse.com). Alex travels to the College of Wooster to discuss t...

Episode 9: “Ohio v. the Mafia”. Alex interviews Rick Porrello, author of To Kill the Irishman, about the Cleveland Mafia and its downfall at the hands of Danny Greene in the 1970s. We travel to Little Italy on Cleveland’s east side to discuss the history of the Mayfield Road Mob from Prohibition to its demise in the ‘70s. We discuss the Sugar War of the 1930s, the life of Jewish gangster, Shonder...

Episode 8: “Ohio v. Celebrity” (Kate Chase) Alex and author John Oller sit down again to discuss America’s first celebrity, Cincinnati’s Kate Chase. They discuss the Civil War-era “belle of the north” and her decades in the public spotlight during the Gilded Age. Alex discusses John’s 2014 book, American Queen, about the beautiful and well-educated Kate Chase. We look at her years in Cincy, Columb...

Episode 7: “Ohio v. Rock n’ Roll” Alex interviews 4 guests about the history of rock n’ roll in Ohio. We sit down with Jerry Depizzo, of the band OAR, to discuss the birth of rock n’ roll in Cleveland, OH and famous DJ Alan Freed (5:00). We look at the tragic concert by the Who in Cincinnati, OH in 1979 where 11 concertgoers were killed trying to get into Riverfront Coliseum. Our guest, Ross Wagne...

Ep. 6: “Ohio v. the White Man” (Tecumseh). Alex discusses the heroic life and times of the famous Shawnee Indian Chief, Tecumseh. We sit down with Brady Crytzer, professor, author, TV and podcast host of Battlefield Pennsylvania and WarTime: A History Podcast. (check out WarTime at www.wartimepodcast.com or iTunes). We travel back to the Ohio Country and talk about life on the dangerous frontier o...

Episode 5: “Ohio v. Impeachment” (Ben Wade/Andrew Johnson) Merry XMas!!! Alex sits down with the Bruce Carlson, the host of the amazing show, “My History Can Beat Up Your Politics”, to discuss impeachment and more specifically, the Impeachment of President Andrew Johnson in 1868. We look at the life and career of Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio and how/why Sen. Wade falls one vote short of being the...