Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly

Three hosts. Five rounds. One judge with a hatchet. Jake, Justin, and Molly each drafted their picks for history's most revolutionary moments, figures, and films — then handed the gavel to three-time guest Codie Eash of the Seminary Ridge Museum to rank every choice and crown a winner. The board ran wide. Jake took the French Revolution, the summer of 1945, Band of Brothers, UMWA president John Mi...

After a long spring hiatus, Justin, Jake, and Molly are back — and they're arguing about what "revolution" actually means. With America's 250th anniversary on the horizon, the three of us turned the question into a draft: five rounds, snake order, one pick per category, and a guest judge waiting in the wings to rank the results. We are thinking of it like building a record collection. Who walks aw...

In this episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly , Jake sat down with Fin Dwyer - the voice behind the  Irish History Podcast and one of the most consistent storytellers working in public history today. If you've ever wondered what it actually takes to sustain a history podcast for more than a decade, this is that conversation. We talk about how Fin got started back in 2010, building...

In this episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly , Justin, Jake, aned Molly wrap up HBO's John Adams miniseries. Episodes five through seven leave the battlefield and diplomacy behind and step into the uncertain world of governing a brand-new nation. Independence has been won - but now comes the reality of politics, power struggles, and the messy work of building a republic from scra...

In this episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly , Jake and Molly head back into HBO's John Adams miniseries - this time following the American Revolution far beyond Boston and Philadelphia. John Adams sails for Europe with young John Quincy Adams at his side, stepping into the chaotic world of Revolutionary diplomacy. In Paris he clashes with Benjamin Franklin, struggles to win alli...

In this emergency episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly , Jake and Molly step away from their regular programming to talk about a war unfolding in real time - and a part of that war that few are discussing. During airstrikes in Iran, damage was reported near the Golestan Palace in Tehran, a UNESCO World Heritage site with roots stretching back centuries. That moment raises a large...

In this episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly , we begin our rewatch of HBO's 2008 miniseries John Adams — and it feels different this time. Jake, Justin, and Molly dive into the first two episodes of  John Adams , beginning with the Boston Massacre and John Adams' controversial defense of British soldiers. It's a legal drama rooted in principle and ambition - a reminder that the...

In this episode, Jake and Justin are joined by public historian Travis Shaw for a story that feels very modern - and yet unfolds in the 1840s. It begins with a marriage between Sally Preston McDowell, the daughter of a powerful Virginia political family, and Francis Thomas, a rising Maryland political star. Within weeks, suspicion, jealousy, and accusation turn that marriage into one of the most e...

In this episode, Jake, Justin, and Molly revisit Last of the Mohicans - Michael Mann's sweeping 1992 epic set during the French and Indian War. The conversation moves between cinema and history, unpacking the real events behind the film's dramatic core, including the siege and massacre at Fort William Henry in 1757. Jake and Justin trace the historical landscape of the war itself - a global confli...

In this episode, Jake and Molly are joined by public historian Rich Condon for a deep dive into one of the most consequential and overlooked stories of the Civil War era: the Port Royal Experiment. Long before Appomattox, long before the Emancipation Proclamation, Reconstruction was already unfolding along the Sea Islands of South Carolina. After Union forces seized Port Royal Sound in late 1861,...

In this "emergency" episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly , Jake and Molly step away from their planned programming to confront a moment happening right. This was recorded on Monday, January 26.  The conversation begins in Philadelphia, where interpretive panels about slavery at the President's House - steps from Independence Hall - were quietly removed ahead of America's 250th an...

In this episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly , Jake hosts a conversation with sportswriter and author David Fleming about one of the most remarkable - and unjust - stories in American sports history: the rise and fall of the Pottsville Maroons. Drawing from Fleming's book Breaker Boys , recently re-released in a special 100th anniversary edition, the conversation traces how a foo...

In this episode, Jake finally watches The Patriot - yes, the Mel Gibson blockbuster that a whole generation absorbed as Revolutionary War "history" in the summer of 2000. Joined by Justin and Molly, the conversation turns into a lively (and occasionally horrified) public history breakdown of what the film gets right, what it invents wholesale, and what it reveals about the era that made it as much...

In this episode, Jake Wynn is joined by historian, archaeologist, and podcaster Damian Shiels for a wide-ranging conversation about Irish immigrants in the Civil War-era United States Army and the long road to Damian's new book, Green and Blue: Irish Americans in the Union Military, 1861–1865 .  You can purchase the book here Jake and Damian dig into the pension files, soldiers' letters, and overl...

In this episode, Jake and Justin are joined by public historian Codie Eash of the Seminary Ridge Museum for a deep dive into one of the most contentious and misunderstood chapters in Gettysburg's postwar history: the fight over Confederate monuments on the battlefield. What feels like a modern debate turns out to be anything but - Union and Confederate veterans arguing bitterly about memory, treas...

In this special holiday episode, Jake, Justin, and Molly gather to talk about It's a Wonderful Life - not just as a Christmas classic, but as a deeply historical film shaped by war, economic depression, and the unsettled, unstable world of 1946. What starts as a cozy movie night quickly turns into a wide-ranging conversation about community, capitalism, trauma, and why Frank Capra's vision of Amer...

In this episode, Jake sits down with public historian EJ Murphy of the Destination Freedom Project at the Waverly Community House to talk about abolition, the Underground Railroad, and the way slavery's political shockwaves reached even the smallest Northern communities before the Civil War. Jake and EJ dig into how Waverly became a key stop on a regional freedom network connecting places like Wil...

On the night of October 8, 1871, a wall of fire roared out of the Wisconsin woods and erased the town of Peshtigo in a matter of minutes. More than 1,200 people were killed, making it the deadliest wildfire in U.S. history - yet its story was overshadowed almost immediately by the Great Chicago Fire burning the same night. In this episode, Jake takes listeners into the story of the disaster and it...

In this episode, we look ahead to America's 250th anniversary and ask what this milestone should mean in 2026 and beyond. The conversation ranges from the messy, decade-long road to revolution to the very local ways towns like Frederick, Maryland, are already marking the moment with traditions like Repudiation Day. Along the way, the crew wrestles with how we remember the founding, who gets includ...

In this episode, we dive into Netflix's Death by Lightning , the gripping new series about President James Garfield's short presidency , his assassination, and the troubled mind of his killer, Charles Guiteau. Drawing from Candice Millard's acclaimed book Destiny of the Republic , the show brings to life an era of bare-knuckle politics, deep factionalism, and a presidency undone by one man's delus...

In the 1950s, the once–thriving town of Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania was fading fast. Local newspaperman Joe Boyle was determined to revive it - and a chance meeting in 1953 with the widow of legendary athlete Jim Thorpe set off one of the strangest civic reinvention stories in American history. This episode unpacks how Mauch Chunk became Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania - a story about boosterism, economic...

In this episode of Public History with Jake and Justin , we're joined by Matt Maris, public historian and founder of Local Historia , a history-focused small business based in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Matt has built a reputation for creating immersive walking tours and community-based history programs that bring the past to life while strengthening local identity. Together, we talk about his deep...

In this episode of Public History with Jake and Justin , we talk with two dedicated public historians doing vital work at one of the Frederick, Maryland's most important historic sites. We're joined by Amanda Venable, Museum Manager at Rose Hill Manor Park and Museums, and Kari Saavedra, Recreation Manager of Natural and Cultural Heritage for Frederick County Parks and Recreation. Together, Amanda...

In this episode of Public History with Jake and Justin, we sit down with our friend and esteemed public historian, Codie Eash, Director of Education and Interpretation at the Seminary Ridge Museum in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  Codie's expertise in tackling the complexities of Civil War memory, race, religion, and the enduring significance of Gettysburg shines through in this lively conversation. ...

On December 16, 1944, German military forces launched a surprise counter-offensive against the United States Army in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium. The attack, which penetrated deeply into American lines, became known to history as the Battle of the Bulge. One of the American soldiers who faced this Nazi onslaught was a 20-year-old citizen-soldier from Pine Grove, Pennsylvania named Irvin Schwart...