PreserveCast

On this fifth edition of PreserveCast Conversations: The Professor and the Practitioner, a new monthly feature of PreserveCast, co-hosts  Nicholas Redding  and  Dr. Whitney Martinko  explore the trends, topics and issues that are making headlines in the world of preservation this month. They’re covering a lot of ground in today’s conversation on preservation and the issues that matter. For regular...

Today we're speaking with Roland Ennos, author of The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization.   As the dominant species on Earth, humans have made astonishing progress since our ancestors came down from the trees. But how did the descendants of small primates manage to walk upright, become top predators, and populate the world? How were humans able to develop ci...

Christmas at a historic home normally conjures up images of a roaring Victorian fireplace or perhaps even an early 20th century Christmas with tin toys and pleasant smells coming from the kitchen. But, what about the kitschy charm of the 1970s? On this week’s PreserveCast we’re revisiting with James Etherington, the Director of Kiplin Hall – a historic site in England which interprets the ancestra...

There are many ways to be a historian – and on this week’s PreserveCast we’re exploring the world of historians for hire – contract historians who do work to help organizations, corporations, agencies and law firms dig deep into history when the stakes are high. During his time at History Associates Incorporated, Scott Vierick has traveled from the Colorado mountains to the Florida Everglades, and...

Blight doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of countless decisions, bad policies and disinvestment over decades. Nneka N’namdi is the founder of Fight Blight Baltimore , an economic, environmental, and social justice initiative that is working to address these systemic barriers and challenges to communities in some of the state’s most historic neighborhoods. N’namdi was recently profiled in...

Some holidays are so ingrained into our lives, it’s hard to imagine the time before they existed – but Halloween wasn’t always the holiday we know today. On this year’s PreserveCast Spooktacular we’re talking with Lisa Morton. Morton recently published Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween , a comprehensive history of one of America’s favorite holidays.

On this fourth edition of PreserveCast Conversations: The Professor and the Practitioner, a new monthly feature of PreserveCast, co-hosts  Nicholas Redding  and  Dr. Whitney Martinko  explore the trends, topics and issues that are making headlines in the world of preservation this month. They’re covering a lot of ground in today’s conversation on preservation and the issues that matter. For regula...

Saving places requires a variety of tools and skillsets – including an understanding of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. It sounds dull – but it’s a tool everyone who cares about historic places should know about and get involved in – because it can save places and use the loss of historic resources to fuel preservation elsewhere. On this week’s PreserveCast, Jacqueline Draye...

Connecting people to places is the work of preservationists everywhere – and on this week’s episode we’re talking with the creative minds behind Maryland Road Trips , a new site dedicated to encouraging place-based tourism. It’s a story rooted in Maryland, but one with lessons for preservationists and historians across the globe. PreserveCast is a nationwide podcast – exploring topics in history,...

Preservation without funding is just good intentions. That’s why people like Merrill Hoopengardner and her team at the National Trust Community Investment Corporation are so integral to the future of this work. Right now, they’re working on big changes to federal funding for preservation – a timely and critical issue we knew had to be on PreserveCast. Merrill Hoopengardner may not be a household n...

On this week's episode of PreserveCast, we are excited to be talking with Kara Harris, a blogger, historian and Maryland food lover. Kara Harris is the blogger and historian behind " Old Line Plate ," a fantastic Maryland based food history website that I personally love, and something that I knew we had to bring to this week's episode of PreserveCast. The blog "Old Line Plate," a play on Maryland...

Yep, you guessed it, I connected with Christina on Twitter – where she learned about a historic rehabilitation project Preservation Maryland was undertaking. Since then, I’ve become a huge fan of her work and the way in which she expertly weaves history and food together – two of my biggest passions. For anyone with an appetite, this is the interview for you. Christina Tkacik has spent her career...

Foxfire is the bioluminescence created by some species of fungi present in decaying wood. It is a wonderfully evocative word selected by a teacher and student over 50 years ago to be the title for their new project to document life in the southern Appalachians. What started initially as a student project has live on for decades and is today an open-air museum and outdoor village with over 20 histo...

On this week’s re-release of PreserveCast , we’re heading back to the brackish marshes of Maryland’s Eastern Shore to talk Tubman, slavery, and freedom. Few names have become as synonymous with grit, determination, and liberty as Harriet Tubman. A Moses for her people, Tubman has become an almost mythical character who represents the best of the American spirit in the face of incredible suffering...

A two-time Pulitzer Prize winning artist, Bill Mauldin’s cartoons embodied the spirit of the infantryman during World War II before turning his critical pen to those in the political sphere. On this week’s PreserveCast, we’re talking with James Brundage, the curator of the Pritzker Military Museum & Library to explore the preservation of this unique art and how Mauldin’s message still resonate...

We all need role models – and we need to see ourselves represented – whether in film, print . . . or in Mattel’s iconic Barbie. Today’s guest, Despina Stratigakos, Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence at the University at Buffalo, is a writer, historian, and professor. She is the author of three books that explore the intersections of power and architecture. Her most recent book,  Where Are the W...

How do serve your mission, your visitors and keep the lights on? That’s a question that nonprofit leaders in the cultural and museum fields ask themselves every day and is all in a day’s work for Colleen Dilenschneider, today’s guest on PreserveCast. Colleen provides data and analysis to inform the evolution of visitor-serving organizations so that they may optimize mission execution and financial...

On this third edition of PreserveCast Conversations: The Professor and the Practitioner, a new monthly feature of PreserveCast, co-hosts  Nicholas Redding  and  Dr. Whitney Martinko explore the trends, topics and issues that are making headlines in the world of preservation this month. They’re covering a lot of ground in today’s conversation on preservation and the issues that matter.

Preservation requires a solid and significant understanding of our past – and on this week’s PreserveCast we’re talking with Jason Church, a National Park Service preservationist who is leading an effort to expertly document the powerfully important physical vestiges of slavery and tenant farming. As these humble and simple structures fade away, work like this takes on a new level of importance an...

This week’s guest is unique; we’re bringing back Bonnie McDonald to talk about the work of her organization, Landmarks Illinois, as they celebrate their 50th anniversary and look forward to the next 50 years of saving places and making preservation relevant in a rapidly changing world.

On this second edition of PreserveCast Conversations: The Professor and the Practitioner, a new monthly feature of PreserveCast, co-hosts  Nicholas Redding  and  Dr. Whitney Martinko explore the trends, topics and issues that are making headlines in the world of preservation this month. From philanthropy to Mohawk ironworkers, they're covering a lot of ground in today's conversation on preservatio...

On this week’s PreserveCast, we’ll explore the intersection between heritage, education and entertainment with Nigel Hetherington, the founder of Past Preservers. With a global reach, Past Preservers serves as a creative hub between the media and heritage worlds. The heart of the operation lies in their expert database which currently contains over 1,400 professionals from over twenty countries an...

In Burgundy, France, around forty workers are taking up an extraordinary challenge: to build a fortified castle using the techniques and materials used in the Middle Ages. It’s almost a surreal project and today we’re talking with Sarah Preston, a bilingual tour guide at Guédelon, a site that is literally resurrecting age old trades in the name of preservation, history and understanding.  I was in...

With every year that passes, the D-Day landings move further and further from memory to history – and how we protect, remember and honor those bloody beaches becomes a conflict between tourism and respect. Today’s guests are part of a Normandy based preservation organization opposed to the creation of a D-Day land – a cross between heritage and entertainment that has riled up the normally quiet bo...

On this first edition of PreserveCast Conversations: The Professor and the Practitioner, a new monthly feature of PreserveCast, co-hosts  Nicholas Redding  and  Dr. Whitney Martinko explore the trends, topics and issues that are making headlines in the world of preservation this month. From murals to infrastructure and traditional trades, they’re covering a lot of ground in this conversational tak...