Past is Prologue Podcast

The 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Japan and the end of World War II coincide with heightened nuclear tensions in 2025 between India and Pakistan, Israel and Iran, and the United States and Russia. It’s time to examine how the decisions of 1945 influence the decisions of today. How did we get here? Do these threats matter? What is life like under a mushroom cloud? Host: Andrew J. Falk...

The 80th anniversary of VE Day, marking the end of the Second World War in Europe, offers an opportunity to think about how – and why – we remember and commemorate the war in the ways we do. We’ll take a tour of countries – the United States, Britain, Russia, France, Poland, and Germany – to see how they have held onto differing national memories of a shared conflict. If we look at how others choo...

The past, as revealed on paper documents, does not always tell the entire story. In this case, the people of the past literally narrate our history. To commemorate Black History Month, we will go back to the 1960s and 1970s and listen to the voices of a community of Black students to discover that integration proved to be far more complex than many recall from textbook coverage of the civil rights...

The new, expanded college football playoffs saw enthusiastic crowds attending bowl games across the country. This year’s NFL Super Bowl is broadcast to millions worldwide. It’s a season when sport and spectacle collide, as stadiums rally civic pride, and athletes compete in a violent struggle for dominance. But the world has seen something like this before when Roman gladiators entered the famous...

Past is Prologue is a history podcast that provides the public with the background behind the day's headlines, and offers much-needed context to understand the significance of current events that people observe around them. It seeks to contribute to the public conversation in an engaging, informative, accessible, and constructive way. It's produced by the Department of History in the College of Ar...

After fire engulfed the 850-year-old Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris in 2019 – destroying the medieval timbers, crushing stone gargoyles and bells, melting the lead roof, causing the spire to collapse, and threatening precious relics and artistic treasures – the restoration has concluded and the cathedral is ready to open its doors once again during the Christmas season. With the help of the latest...

What’s the backstory to the ingredients and dishes that find their way to your Thanksgiving table? This holiday season, you’re invited to join us in the kitchen for a heaping helping of history because food can be a portal to the past. Cook along with us as we use old recipes from historic cookbooks. We’ll travel back in time and feel a connection to the people of the past and the worlds in which...

In this final installment in our miniseries on the election of 2024, we use history to understand the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris and the strategic decisions her presidential campaign has made. Labeled by the Trump campaign as an “extremist” and the “antichrist,” do themes of patriotism and religion affect the way Harris campaigns for the presidency under a banner of “joy and freedom...

This is the second episode in our three-part series on the election of 2024. Today, we’re looking at voters in the battleground states. In a nation of “red” states for Trump and “blue” states for Harris, what are voters thinking in the “purple” bellwether states of the “Rust Belt” and “Sun Belt”? We'll get the historical backstory to shifting political coalitions, economic and racial insecurities,...

The 2024 presidential election in U.S. history is shaping up to be unlike any others… but is it? An incumbent president with health concerns. A former president seeking to regain the office he lost is the target of an assassination attempt. The biased media sets the narrative and stokes partisan fury. Not only are their historical parallels to these and other facets of the election, but there are...

Paris is hosting the Summer Olympics and, aside from the athletic competitions, it allows the world to focus attention on the people and culture of Paris. There’s a history to this: The ancient Olympics featured artistic competitions, and the modern Olympics handed out medals to artists in multiple events: music, painting, sculpture, literature, and architecture. What draws us to the great interna...

The Summer Olympics are here once again – a spectacular two weeks of athletic competition filled with tradition, including the passing of the torch, the parade of nations, medal ceremonies, and national anthems. But how traditional is it? Athletes in ancient Greece didn’t compete in togas and tunics; in fact, they didn’t compete in clothing at all! They raced chariots, avoided getting beaten by st...

You can listen here for a glimpse into the future of the past: the topics of our brand new summer episodes. Thanks for listening, subscribing, rating, and recommending to others! Past is Prologue is a history podcast that provides the public with the background behind the day's headlines, and offers much-needed context to understand the significance of current events that people observe around...

During the “patriotic season” – Memorial Day, Flag Day, and July 4th – families come together to commemorate the nation, especially our hard-fought independence during the American Revolution. But the complex political events between “Mother England” and her American “daughter” also provide the backdrop to the family dramas that affected many Americans, including the “father of the country” George...

The current situation in Haiti reveals political instability and a worsening humanitarian crisis. Can anything be done about it? Can the world sit back and watch? Can the United States do anything? Should it? Behind the headlines, there’s a long history of American involvement in Haiti. Our nations are intertwined, for better or for worse, perhaps more than most Americans realize. Host: Andrew J....

As the podcast returns after a hiatus, the headlines tell us that Joe Biden and Donald Trump are destined for a sequel to the 2020 election. As Trump attempts to return to the White House, how do past “returns” – from Napoleon and MacArthur to Michael Jordan and the Terminator – help frame the drama unfolding for voters? Spoiler: Some returns turn out better than others. Host: Andrew J. Falk Past...

Thanksgiving is noted for the fall harvest, feasts and festivals, and families. Many of us have grown up with children’s stories, fairy tales, and nursery rhymes that help frame our expectations and diverse experiences around the celebratory table. Here, we even dish on Harry Potter and Ebeneezer Scrooge. As the saying goes: “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are.” This episode is s...

How often do you think about the Roman Empire? As Halloween approaches, and as ghosts, skeletons, and flesh-eaters start to appear, we’ll look at death in the Roman Empire – from burial rituals to the secrets that cemeteries and headstones hold. What can they tell us about the people of the distant past? Friends, Romans, Countrymen, and podcast listeners, lend me your ears as we take a walk throug...

Reading, writing, and arithmetic are increasingly overshadowed by citizens, censorship, and the statehouse. The news is filled with outrage over teaching “divisive concepts” and banning books and graphic novels, which has placed school libraries and classrooms on the front lines. But there’s a complicated and interesting history to education, fights over curriculum, and who has a say over what chi...

We’re taking a brief summer vacation in July. But you can listen here for a glimpse into the future of the past: the topic of our brand new episode in August. Thanks for listening, subscribing, rating, and recommending to others! Past is Prologue is a history podcast that provides the public with the background behind the day's headlines, and offers much-needed context to understand the signif...

As the weather warms up, you may be thinking about summer vacation. Whether you’re heading to the beach, taking a roadtrip to hike around a national park, trekking to a city or theme park, jetting overseas, planning a “staycation” closer to home, or just scrolling through social media to see friends’ vacation photos, there’s a history to travel and tourism. What happens when we seek adventure and...

This spring holds many public spectacles surrounding graduates, brides and grooms, and even King Charles III in London. What is the purpose of all this pomp and ceremony surrounding events like graduations, weddings, and coronations? What do these rituals and symbols mean? And what do they say about us when we participate and observe (or ignore) them? In other words: What’s up with all these caps,...

We surround ourselves with a lot of life-like artificial intelligence, or AI. One new form of AI that’s making headlines is ChatGPT, which can hold advanced, human-like conversations with anyone with a keyboard. It’s a brave new world… or is it? We tend to think of this AI technology as a new, modern phenomenon, but there’s a history to how we confront new technologies. Host: Andrew J. Falk Guest:...

In this first episode, we're thinking a lot about the naming (and re-naming) we see in the news -- of streets, schools, sports mascots, historic sites, even people -- and realize that there's a history to naming. We also explain the backstory to the name for this podcast and introduce its home in the "Historic Triangle" of Hampton Roads, Virginia. Host: Andrew J. Falk Guest: Sheri Shuck-Hall Past...