Talking History

In this episode of Talking History, Djene and Patrick talk to journalist David Griscom about his new book, The Myth of Red Texas . Texas is often seen as one of America’s most conservative states, a place where Republican politics, religion moralism, and rugged individualism, and seem almost baked into its identity. But has this always been the case? Djene and Patrick talk to journalist David Gris...

Every four years, Americans witness one of the defining rituals of public life: the inauguration of a president.  In that moment, the president places a hand on the Bible and swears not merely to support the Constitution, but to “preserve, protect, and defend” it. That language is striking, and perhaps more revealing than we often realize. Why does the Constitution single out the president in this...

This month Djene and Patrick speak with Stuart Hinds, Curator of Special Collections and Archives at the Miller Nichols Library, about the Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America. When people think about queer history in the United States, they often think first of places like New York or San Francisco. But the history of queer activism, community and struggle was never confined to the coasts. It w...

For generations rumors have swirled of lost civilizations in the Amazon. If you’re of a certain age, perhaps you grew up with Indiana Jones evading stone traps and poison darts in order to thieve away cultural riches from the jungle. Today, archaeologists thousands of miles away are utilizing emerging technological tool kits in order to analyze data in a way that gives them a much clearer understa...

On a cold April morning in 1945, nearly five thousand young American airmen climbed into B-17s and B-24s on dusty airfields in southern Italy. A few hours later, they were flying through a sky turned black with flak over Linz, Austria, Hitler’s adopted hometown, the city he dreamed of remaking into the cultural capital of his empire. For the men in those bombers, it was supposed to be one of the l...

Djene and Patrick speak with video essayist Matt Pearson, aka the “Feral Historian,” about his essay “ Sci-Fi, Satire, and the Post-WWII Mythos .” The compelling videos made by this “rogue scholar” are about 20th century history viewed through the context of science fiction. Djene and Patrick talk to Mr. Pearson about a recent entry that explores the relationship between popular portrayals of movi...

In the autumn of 2022, Iran was rocked by a wave of national, popular unrest, some of the most severe in recent years. The immediate cause of the revolt was the suspicious death of an Iranian Kurdish woman, Mahsa Jîna Amini, whilst in the custody of the Tehran police. Amini’s death proved to be a lightning rod for discontent directed at the Islamist government in Iran, which took power after the 1...

In this episode of Talking History, Djene speaks with Dr. Sara McLaughlin Mitchell about conflict and cooperation over water resources. From oil and gas to lithium and rare earth elements, the story of the modern world has often been shaped by competition over natural resources. But in many parts of the world today, it isn’t oil or gold that drives tension, it’s something far more basic: water. Fr...

When we think of historians, we often think of educators working within the university system, teaching classes, and conducting research in dusty old archives. However, the field of history and the careers engaged in by trained historians are wider and broader than one might think. This includes the field of public history.  Public history is the practice of doing history outside the traditional c...

The Ozarks and the study of its people, history, and culture are not an infrequent topic on this show. This is in part due to this show’s production near the middle of “The Queen City of the Ozarks.” It is also influenced heavily by this show’s place in the Missouri State University community and its sponsorship by the Department of History, which offers one of – if not the – only program devoted...

Nieh Hualing (1925-2024) was a Chinese-born writer, poet, and editor whose career bridged multiple cultures and continents. Born in Wuhan, she lived through the upheavals of the Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War before moving to Taiwan, where she established herself as a prominent literary figure.  Her marriage to fellow writer Paul Engle eventually brought her to the United States, wher...

Long before the United States became a global superpower, it was already casting its gaze far beyond its borders. In the decades before the Civil War, American ships sailed to the farthest corners of the globe, to protect and expand commerce, project political and religious influence, and stake out a place in the European-dominated global order. This was a period when young American sailors and na...

In 1989, political scientist Francis Fukuyama published an article, The End of History , (later expanded into a book in 1992), in which he argued that, with the end of the Cold War and the fall of communism, liberal democracy had triumphed as the final form of human government after the Cold War. Fukuyama’s ideas were extremely influential during the 1990s and early 2000s. However, over the last d...

In this episode, Djene speaks with Dr. James Ryan about the history of modernization theory and nation-building.  From Iraq and Afghanistan, over the last quarter of a century, the foreign policy of the United States has been very much defined by efforts at nation-building.  These missions, grounded in the idea that democratic institutions, free markets, and strong civil societies can be engineere...

Patrick and Djene speak to journalist David Griscom about his upcoming book, Cutting Fences , which examines social change in Texas in the late nineteenth century and the rise of populism.  Griscom is a writer and political commentator from Austin, Texas, with deep roots in the working-class experience. His work bridges Southern history and politics with the broader traditions of leftist thought a...

In this episode of Talking History , Patrick Needham and Djene Bajalan speak with Dr. Touré Reed about the history of anti-discrimination initiatives, from Affirmative Action to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). On January 20, 2025, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order entitled, “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government and DEI Programs and Preferencing,” which mandated an end t...

In this episode of Talking History , Patrick and Djene talk with Dr. Samee Siddiqui about Indian-Japanese Relations in the early 20th century and the rise of Pan-Asianism. The history of the peoples of Asia during the 19th and 20th centuries is often looked at through the lens of their relationship with the West. This is perhaps understandable due to Western economic, military, and political domin...

When we think about fascist movements in Europe, themes like racial hierarchy, eugenics, and hostility toward disabled individuals often come to mind. However, the reality is far more complex. This month on  Talking History , Djene and Patrick discuss fascism and disability with Ms. Brandie Robb. Ms. Robb is a graduate student at Missouri State University whose research focuses on disability in fa...

The struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, the so-called “Cold War” was one of the defining conflicts of the second half of the 20th century. This conflict was not simply a geopolitical conflict between the world’s two remaining superpowers, but represented a fight for the future of humanity—one which pitted the American-led capitalist world against the Soviet-led socialist bloc....

In recent years, there has been much public discussion in the United States over the teaching of history, from the controversies pertaining to journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones's 1619 projects and the debates surrounding confederate monuments to the perception amongst some that scholarship on the history of Israel-Palestine is promoting antisemitism.   While history is often portrayed as a dry academ...

The city of Springfield, Missouri was founded in the 1830's, but the area has been inhabited for thousands of years. As the city begins work to "daylight" the small stream known as Jordan Creek in its downtown area, a group of Archaeologists from the Warren Center for Archaeological Research at Missouri State University spent part of the summer digging beneath the blacktop of a large parking lot a...

Perusing the local liquor store shelves, you will encounter wines from Australia and South Africa, two former British colonies. The story of these wine producing regions is inextricably linked to mineral extraction and labor exploitation, with "viticultural capitalists" investing large sums of capital into the consolidation, expansion, and proliferation of these fledgling wine industries.   This m...

Much to the annoyance of historians, public perceptions of the past are often shaped by popular culture, books, TV, films, and other cultural artifacts. However, despite their inaccuracies, the elements that make up popular culture are topics of great interest to historians. In this episode of  Talking History , we speak to Dr. Kathleen Kennedy about the ways popular culture can provide insights i...

In 2022, the painful history of Canada’s relationship with its Native American population was thrust into the limelight with the discovery of mass graves at former residential schools. For Canada’s rulers, these boarding schools were seen as a vehicle to “civilize” the country’s indigenous population; to bring them into the “modern world”. However, the reality was that such schools were often the...

In this episode of Talking History , Patrick and Djene speak to Dr. Daniel Bessner about the history of Hollywood. In 2023, the Writers Guild of America, which represents over 11,000 screenwriters, went on strike.  One of the central areas of their dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers was residuals from streaming services. The work stoppage culminated, after 148 day...