The Road to Now

When Americans think of Karl Marx, they probably think of the self-proclaimed Marxist governments whose rivalry with the US & Western Europe defined the 20th Century. Marx, however, formulated a theory of historical change and social relationships under capitalism that was more productive than the Communist governments of the 20th Century. In this episode, Bob and Ben talk about how Marx viewed hi...

Most Americans grow up learning about the civil rights movement from a very young age, but the stories we tell about the March on Washington, Dr. King's speeches, and the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of 1964-65 leave out the very real ways that the Jim Crow system continues to shape our world today. In this episode of The Road to Now, Ben's friend and colleague Louis Woods joins us to expla...

Slavery was an integral part of the American republic from the moment of independence until the abolition of the so-called "peculiar institution" with the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865. The social and economic impact of the slave system, however, are much larger in terms of both time and geography. In this episode, Bob and Ben speak with Edward Baptist about slavery's origins, its evo...

Most Americans identify themselves as middle class. But what does that mean? Bob & Ben talk with The Bell Policy Center's Scott Wasserman to talk about the challenges facing American workers, the difference between "middle class" and "working class," and the differences between the economy today and that of the 20th century. The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. For more on this a...

The 1970s was a pivotal decade in American history. In a ten-year span, the United States admitted defeat in Vietnam, saw a President resign in shame, and came face to face with many of the atrocities it had committed abroad. American citizens also faced a score of economic problems, including "stagflation," an energy crisis, and the realization that many of them would end the decade worse off tha...

Peter Kornbluh has spent his life working to shed light on US covert operations abroad. Along with his colleagues at the National Security Archive, Peter has helped to declassify documents related to the Bay of Pigs (1961) and Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), the coup against Chile's democratically elected government (1973) and the Iran-Contra Scandal (1980s). As it turns out, Central Intelligence Age...

Bob and Ben sit down to talk about the current events and historical questions that have been on their mind lately. They cover the GI bill delays that student veterans are currently facing, the one war that Teddy Roosevelt didn't win, the tragedy of the 1970s and why Ronald Reagan is the Godfather of punk rock. They also talk about all the times and places that they've seen J. Mascis. For more on...

At the beginning of the 20th century, most of the territory that we call the Middle East- including Syria, Iraq, Israel and Turkey- were part of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman alliance w/ Germany and Austria-Hungary during World War I provided Britain and France w/ the opportunity to divide the once-great empire into many states based on European imperial ambitions. In this episode Bob and Ben sp...

On November 6, 2018, the people of Florida voted to amend their state's constitution to restore voting rights to an estimated one and a half million citizens who had lost this right due to a prior felony conviction. In recognition of this significant restoration of rights, we're re-airing our interview w/ Pippa Holloway on the history of felon disfranchisement and citizenship in America (originall...

What does it mean to be American? This isn't just a question for us in 2018 -- it was an unanswered question for the country in the late 19th century when it came to musical identity. And of all the people to try to answer it, it may have been the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak who came closest, while living in New York City and a small town in Iowa during the 1890s. Dvorak harnessed what he experi...

Note: Gerry Adams will be giving a public talk in the Civil Rights Room of the Nashville Public Library on Saturday, November 3rd at 10:00am. The talk is open to the public and Gerry invites you to come say hello! For more information, contact Greg O'Loughlin at 615-887-7547 or oloughlin@gmail.com. Gerry Adams has dedicated most of his life to finding an end to the conflict that has engulfed North...

RTN Theology now is now on its own podcast feed! Subscribe anywhere you get The Road to Now for RTN Theology episodes 12-19 and more! Discussing the relationship between faith and the public sphere has been a part of America's story since its beginning. Over the past decade, the presence of Christian faith in public policy and politics has been questioned and challenged in new and unique ways. How...

Bob and Ben speak with Jeffrey Engel about the history of Presidential impeachment and how understanding the past can inform the debates surrounding the impeachment of current and future Presidents. Jeff explains the reasons the delegates to the Philadelphia Convention in 1787 chose to enshrine impeachment in the Constitution, how the process works, and what they meant by "other high Crimes and Mi...

Henry & Rupert Stansall (aka The Ruen Brothers ) began their musical careers playing in the Working Men's clubs of Scunthorpe in Northern England at a time in life when most of us were only beginning to discover music. In the almost two decades since, their road has led them to London, Los Angeles, and finally to Brooklyn, NY, where they currently reside. In between, the duo now known as The Ruen...

Bob and Ben speak with Jon Waterlow about his new book It's Only a Joke Comrade! Humor, Trust and Everyday Life Under Stalin and the role humor plays in helping humans make sense of the world in even the darkest times. Jon also shares his take on humor's role in politics under Stalin and today, the process he went through to uncover these jokes, and how the artistic technique of crosshatching help...

National Voter Registration Day is Tuesday, September 25th, and Bob and Ben are doing their part to get the word out. In this episode we speak with HeadCount Executive Director Andy Bernstein to talk about the work HeadCount has been doing to get people registered to vote, the importance of staying on top of local and national politics, and why your vote counts. Since 2004, HeadCount has registere...

This week we take a deep dive into the upcoming Midterm Elections with Editor and Publisher of The Cook Political Report , and NBC News political analyst, Charlie Cook. Since 1984 Charlie has been the preeminent election forecaster for politicians, pundits, and political junkies alike. This week Charlie joins Bob for a one on one interview and helps to bring a historical perspective to the current...

Veteran journalists Bill Plante & Olivier Knox join Bob & Ben for a conversation about the press and how journalism has changed in recent years. Bill Plante covered politics for CBS News from 1964 until 2016, and had a front row seat to some of the most significant events in the last half century, including the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement. Olivier Knox is the President of the White H...

"Make American Great Again" is not a precise slogan, but it did capture the sense of anxiety many Americans feel about work in the 21st century. The "gig economy," in which more and more American workers rely on multiple jobs, is certainly different from the job market just three generations ago, when employers offered the stability of life-long employment and the promise of a pension-funded retir...

Ben talks with Sociologist Pat Reilly, whose research examines the organization and economics of stand up comedy in Los Angeles. Pat explains what makes stand up a unique form of entertainment, the ways stand up has changed since it began, and how comics deal with issues such as joke theft. Ben and Pat also talk about their own experiences as stand up comics, and the challenges of joining, being p...

Bob & Ben speak with Syracuse University's Dr. David Bennett to learn more about the history of nativism in the United States. Dr. Bennett discusses his book The Party of Fear: From Nativist Movements to the New Right in American History (Penguin, 1995, 2nd ed.) , and how that book might look if a new edition were published today. The Road to Now is a member of the Osiris Podcast Network. For more...

A lot has changed since the first episode of The Road to Now launched in May 2016, so Bob and Ben decided to spend some time reflecting on the podcast, the state of politics, and what they've learned about history. Bob explains what he thinks most people get wrong about history and the way that hosting RTN and beginning graduate studies have changed his relationship to history, Ben gives his insig...

RTN Theology now is now on its own podcast feed! Subscribe anywhere you get The Road to Now for RTN Theology episodes 12-19 and more! In this episode of RTN Theology, Bob talks to Fuller Theological Seminary Assistant Professor Kutter Callaway about his new book, Breaking the Marriage Idol: Reconstructing Our Cultural and Spiritual Norms (InterVarsity Press, 2018) and the need to change the existi...

Last fall, our good friend and fellow podcaster Bruce Carlson invited Ben to join him for a conversation about Elvis Presley and his impact on American society. During the conversation, Bob told an epic story about his Elvis Presley t-shirt that has never been told on The Road to Now.....until now (and Ben thinks it's one of the best stories Bob's ever told)! We'll be back next week with an all-ne...

The 2018 FIFA World Cup is underway in Russia, so Ben sat down with soccer historian Alex Galarza and RTN favorite Matt Negrin to talk about the history of the World Cup. We discuss the corruption that has plagued FIFA, the controversy surrounding FIFA's decision to award the World Cup to Qatar, and what factors helped propel soccer into the world's most popular sport. We also share some of our fa...