Reckoning with Jason Herbert

Episode Description As America prepares to commemorate Juneteenth, Jason Herbert sits down with legendary actor Ben Vereen and breakout star Amethyst Davis for a powerful conversation about The Grey House —the Civil War-era drama that explores freedom, resistance, and the unfinished legacy of slavery. Drawing on their experiences bringing the series to life, Vereen and Davis reflect on portraying...

What can a salty desert lake in Eastern California teach us about climate change, Indigenous history, migration, and the future of the American West? On this episode of Reckoning with Jason Herbert , historian Bob Marks joins Jason to discuss his new book, Deep Time in the Mono Lake Basin , and the remarkable 10,000-year environmental history of Mono Lake Basin. From the ancient world of the North...

D-Day is one of the most studied military operations in history. But what if the fate of the Allied invasion hinged not on generals, tanks, or landing craft—but on a weather forecast? In this episode of Reckoning with Jason Herbert , Jason is joined by historians Todd Arrington and Dr. Colin Colbourn to discuss the new film Pressure , starring Brendan Fraser as General Dwight D. Eisenhower and And...

World War II reached far beyond the beaches of Normandy and the islands of the Pacific. It also came to Alaska, where Indigenous communities found themselves on the front lines of invasion, military occupation, and forced relocation. In this episode of Reckoning with Jason Herbert , historian Holly Miowak Guise discusses her groundbreaking book Alaska Native Resilience: Voices from World War II ....

What happened at the Mariupol Drama Theater — and what does it reveal about the larger war between Russia and Ukraine? In this episode of Reckoning with Jason Herbert , historian Jason Herbert sits down with acclaimed journalist and author James Verini to discuss his powerful new book, The Theater, an intimate account of the bombing of the Mariupol Drama Theater during Russia’s 2022 invasion of Uk...

Historian and food studies scholar Jeffrey Pilcher joins Reckoning with Jason Herbert to explore the surprising global history of beer and how one of humanity’s oldest drinks became a worldwide commodity. Drawing from his new book Hopped Up: How Travel, Trade, and Taste Made Beer a Global Commodity , Pilcher traces beer’s journey from ancient brewing traditions to modern craft breweries, revealing...

What made George Washington more than a Founding Father? In this episode of Reckoning with Jason Herbert , historian H. W. Brands joins Jason to explore the man behind the marble statue—soldier, strategist, slaveholder, revolutionary, and reluctant president. Drawing from Brands’ new biography of Washington, the conversation dives deep into the personality and contradictions of America’s first pre...

What does The Green Knight reveal about masculinity, honor, fear, and the strange world of medieval storytelling? In this episode of Reckoning with Jason Herbert , historian and medievalist Matt Gabriele joins Jason for a deep dive into David Lowery’s haunting adaptation of the Arthurian legend Sir Gawain and the Green Knight . Together, they unpack the film’s rich symbolism, eerie atmosphere, and...

What if our most famous environmental dystopias reveal as much about fear and ideology as they do about the future? In this episode of Reckoning with Jason Herbert , I sit down with film scholar Matthew Thompson, author of On Life Support , to unpack the haunting world of Soylent Green —and the larger tradition of eco-dystopian cinema that emerged in the 1970s. We explore how films like Soylent Gr...

What if American slavery didn’t begin in 1619? In this episode, historian Linford Fisher joins me to discuss Stealing America: The Hidden Story of Indigenous Slavery in US History and the overlooked history of Indigenous enslavement. We explore how Native slavery shaped early America—from the Pequot War and Yamasee War to land theft, westward expansion, and boarding schools—and why this history st...

What does The Fast and the Furious actually tell us about Hollywood—and about us? This week on Reckoning with Jason Herbert , I’m joined by Dan Hassler-Forest to break down one of the most unlikely blockbuster franchises of the 21st century. From its origins as a street racing film in 2001 to a global, multi-billion-dollar saga, Fast & Furious didn’t just evolve—it helped reshape how Hollywood...

Two of our earliest guests are back — and 200 episodes later, the conversation is better than ever. Jason sits down with Emily Contois (Associate Professor of Media Studies at the University of Tulsa and author of *Diners, Dudes, and Diets*) and Mark Johnson (Assistant Professor of History at UT Chattanooga and author of the newly released *American Bacon: The History of a Food Phenomenon*) to dig...

John Quincy Adams is one of those figures who seems to sit quietly in the background of American history — the son of a Founder, a one-term president, a man often overshadowed by bigger personalities. But look closer, and a very different story emerges. After losing the presidency, Adams didn’t fade away. He reinvented himself. He returned to Washington, entered the House of Representatives, and b...

What does it mean to fight for your people—not on a battlefield, but in courtrooms, in capitals… and even on the global stage? In this episode of Reckoning with Jason Herbert , I’m joined by filmmaker and Miccosukee storyteller Montana Cypress to talk about his powerful new film, Becoming Buffalo . At the center of the story is Buffalo Tiger—a man raised in the Everglades who would go on to lead h...

In this episode of Reckoning with Jason Herbert , I’m joined by historian Megan Kate Nelson to talk about her new book The Westerners: Mythmaking and Belonging on the American Frontier —and why the frontier myth refuses to die. We dig into the stories of seven people who lived the West in real time—Indigenous women, Black frontiersmen, Chinese migrants, and white settlers—and how their lives compl...

What if time travel wasn’t about discovery—but control? In this episode of Reckoning with Jason Herbert, we dive into the 1994 sci-fi action film Timecop —a quintessential 90s blockbuster starring Jean-Claude Van Damme that blends time travel, political corruption, and high-octane action into something far more revealing than it first appears. Joining me are Reckoning stalwarts and my great friend...

In this episode, I sit down with historian James Longhurst, author of Bike Battles , to break down the 1979 film Breaking Away and what it reveals about cycling and American life. We talk about why this coming-of-age sports movie still resonates, how it captures class and masculinity, and what it says about the 1970s bike boom. Along the way, we dig into the history of bicycling in America, the po...

Wildfires are no longer rare disasters in the American West—they are a defining feature of the landscape. But very few people have seen them up close. In this episode, Jason Herbert speaks with Kelly Ramsey , author of Wildfire Days: A Woman, a Hotshot Crew, and the Burning American West . Ramsey spent multiple seasons on an elite wildland firefighting crew—known as hotshots —the teams sent to the...

Barbecue is American history — but not the version most of us were taught. In this episode, I talk with James Beard Award–winning historian Adrian Miller about the untold story behind his book Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue. Who built American barbecue? How did enslaved pitmasters shape a national cuisine? Why have Black barbecue traditions been minimized in the s...

What if Clue isn’t just a cult comedy — but a sharp satire of the Cold War? In this episode of Reckoning with Jason Herbert , historian Julio Capó Jr. joins me to unpack the surprisingly profound history lesson hidden inside the 1985 film Clue . Set in a 1950s mansion but released during the Reagan era, Clue plays with paranoia, anti-communism, class anxiety, and America’s nostalgic myths about th...

Today on the podcast, we’re stepping inside The Gray House —not just the story you see on screen, but the one behind it. This episode is a behind-the-scenes look at how this series came to life: how it was conceived, how it was built, and why it mattered enough to tell it this way. I’m joined by executive producers Lori McCreary and Leslie Greif , along with director Roland Joffé . Together, they...

In this episode, I sit down with cultural geographer Rashad Shabazz to dissect the 1984 classic starring Prince — and ask the uncomfortable questions. Is The Kid a tortured genius… or a young man replaying generational trauma? Is the final performance redemption — or dominance? And what does Minneapolis represent in a film about Black masculinity, ambition, and control? We unpack race, space, viol...

In Episode 183 of Reckoning with Jason Herbert , historian Heather Cox Richardson joins the show for a lively and surprisingly sharp conversation about the film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter —and what it reveals about American mythmaking. What happens when we place a fantastical, axe-wielding Abraham Lincoln alongside the real political crises of the 1860s—and our own? We explore the Civil War,...

In this episode of Reckoning , historian Andrew Wehrman, author of Contagion of Liberty , explores how smallpox and inoculation shaped the American founding—and ignited some of the earliest debates over liberty, risk, and public health. Long before COVID-19, Americans wrestled with questions of bodily autonomy, religious belief, communal obligation, and government authority, all in the shadow of a...

In this episode of Reckoning, we speak with author and journalist Jack El-Hai about the new film Nuremberg and the deeper questions it raises about justice, memory, and moral responsibility. Drawing on his book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist , El-Hai examines the relationship between Hermann Göring and Dr. Douglas Kelley during the Nuremberg Trials, and what it reveals about psychology, power, and...