The Road to Now

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! Chris Breslin recently invited Bob to be part of a live conversation with Kate Bowler to talk about the history of Christianity, their faith, and how the crisis of cancer has affected their relationships with God. Kate Bowler is Assistant Professor of the History of...

The debate over taxation and the economy is an argument that is as old as the nation itself. In our previous episode , historian Robert McElvaine argued that the tax reform of 2017 reflected the types of conservative policies that helped bring about the Great Depression. In this episode, we turn to the Manhattan Institute's Brian Riedl to get a different perspective on taxation and its role in the...

Taxation is a controversial topic in the United States. Some Americans see taxation as a penalty on hard work, while others see it as a way to alleviate social ills and discourage activity they deem undesirable. And because taxation is inseparable from the question of government's role in people's lives, it is one of the issues that most divides the two major parties in modern America. In today's...

During a recent tour with The Avett Brothers , Bob caught up with historian Douglas Brinkley to talk about history and the state of American politics. Brinkley shared his thoughts on the current state of Donald Trump's Presidency, its parallels with Nixon, and what he thinks it would take for the GOP to turn on the current Commander-in-Chief. They also talk about Hunter S. Thompson, working with t...

The Republican Party has changed a lot since a few former Whigs started the party in the 1850s. Today, the party's legacy is usually defined in terms of well-known figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, but author Robert Merry thinks William McKinley deserves a lot more credit than historians and modern politicians have given him. In this Presidents' Day 2018 episod...

The Road to Now was lucky enough to be part of The Avett Brothers at the Beach music festival, so we invited our friend Bruce Carlson of My History Can Beat Up Your Politics to join us for a discussion of some key moments in the relationship between the United States and Mexico. We cover the US annexation of Texas and the Mexican-American War, as well as the ways that the US and Mexico have contri...

The War of 1812 isn't an event most of us get excited about. The conflict between the US and Great Britain lasted almost 3 years, but like a lot of sequels, it didn't live up to the original. When the war was over, little had changed for either country's place in the world, and most of the grievances that began the war remained unsettled. So aside from the burning of the White House and Congress,...

There is no question that Donald Trump's approach to foreign affairs is nothing we've seen from the Presidents who preceded him.  In a recent New York Times Op-Ed , Mark Landler argued that the Trump Administration has broken a 70-year tradition in America's foreign policy. Whether this is an abrogation of America's responsibility to the globe or a necessary change for the good of the country requ...

Americans love coffee. According to recent statistics, more than 60% of Americans drink at least one cup of coffee every day, and the market research firm Mintel predicts that coffee shops will take in more than $23 billion dollars in 2017. Our love for coffee ties us to people and countries around the world, and to those who lived long before us. In this episode of The Road to Now , we speak with...

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 the premier episode of our theology subseries, RTN Theology we welcome Christian philosopher James K.A. Smith to discuss the intersection of Christianity and culture in the United States. We also chat about his illuminating Op-Ed that appeared in the Thanksgiving...

A few days ago, President Donald Trump welcomed the Navajo Code Talkers to the White House. Instead of focusing solely on the veterans' contributions during World War II, he used the event to take shots at Senator Elizabeth Warren, who he mocked as "Pocahontas" for her alleged unsubstantiated claims of Native American ancestry. He also held the ceremony in front of a portrait of President Andrew J...

Are faith and reason compatible? How do people of faith reconcile themselves to a secular world? These are difficult and complex questions that have shaped America long before the founding of the United States. On this episode of The Road to Now , we sit down with Molly Worthen to talk about the development of Christianity in the United States, and its impact on American society, culture and gover...

The Russian Revolution that began with the fall of Tsar Nicholas II in February of 1917 and continued into a second revolution the following October, is unquestionably one of the most significant events in modern history. The October Revolution brought Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Party from relative obscurity to the leaders of the first communist nation, later called the Union of Soviet Socia...

On August 4, 1789, the National Assembly of France adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which asserted the Enlightenment ideals of universal rights and democracy. Though the French Declaration shared a common ideological lineage with the American Declaration of Independence, the French Revolution took a very different path: fifteen years after their founding revolutiona...

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther delivered his 95 Theses to the Catholic Church. We don't know for sure if Luther actually nailed them to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church, but we do know that his work changed the world. In recognition of the five-hundredth anniversary of Martin Luther's Theses, Bob and Ben are joined by Church Historian Dr. Donald Fortson. Dr. Fortson explains the reason...

Death is something that all humans have in common. How we dealt with death is not. The cemeteries that occupy prominent places in the American landscape, as well as the twenty-one thousand funeral homes in operation across the country, are products of the time and place in which they emerged. In this episode, we speak with Wake Forest's Tanya Marsh, to learn about the historic forces at work in th...

On the corner of 4th Avenue and Commerce Street in Nashville, there's a historical marker that reads: "William Walker; Grey-eyed Man of Destiny; Born May 8, 1824, Walker moved to this site from 6th Ave. N. in 1840.  In early life he was doctor, lawyer & journalist.  He invaded Mexico in 1853 with 46 men & proclaimed himself Pres., Republic of Lower Calif.  Led forces into Nicaragua in 1855; was el...

In this episode of The Road to Now , we sit down for coffee and conversation with Bob's bandmates in The Avett Brothers for a discussion about art, technology, and challenges of creativity. We cover the historic relationship between genius and madness, the ways one's self is reflected in what we create, and the how they've adapted to the changes that have come their way since they began playing mu...

The Nazi regime that came to power in Germany in 1933 unleashed the most brutal and comprehensive war that humanity has ever seen. The horrors of the Nazis and the destruction they left behind is something most of us learned about in history class, but for Gerd Schroth it is the story of his childhood. Born in Germany in 1938, Gerd came of age on the scorched earth left behind by the German war ma...

Lance Armstrong is one of the most recognized names in modern American sports. He's also one of the most divisive. He's a man who helped raise almost half a billion dollars to help people suffering from cancer. He's also a man who aggressively went after those who accused him of using performance-enhancing drugs. In this episode of The Road To Now , Bob and Ben sit down for a conversation with Lan...

In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was the first major legislative act in American history to restrict immigration. In this episode we talk with historian Andrew Gyory about the reasons that immigration became such a powerful political issue in the late 19th century, and how studying this period of history can help us better understand the politics of immigration in 2017. Dr...

Charles Darwin's Origin of Species is one of the most controversial books ever written. For most Americans, Darwin's theories are associated with the 1925 Scopes trial and the near century-long "evolution vs creation" debate has that emerged as a dominant theme in American society in the years since the trial. In this episode of The Road to Now , we speak with Dr. Randall Fuller about his new book...

At The Road to Now , we don't just make history podcasts- we also listen to them. In this episode we're excited to share our conversation with fellow history podcaster Dr. Liz Covart, whose podcast Ben Franklin's World covers the history of early America. Bob, Ben and Liz discuss the concept of the frontier in American history, the work that goes into writing history and sharing findings, and why...

Oil is one of the oldest fuel sources known to man. Its impact on the world is not simple; while it has powered the vehicles that have made human mobility possible, it has also propped up some of the most repressive regimes in recent history. In the last installment of our four-part history of energy series, we speak to journalist and author Paul Roberts to discuss the complex role that oil has pl...

When most Americans think of sustainable technology, they think of Jimmy Carter's solar panels or the windmills that are beginning to pop up across the country. But so-called "sustainable" or "green" energy has a history that can be traced back to the 19th century. In this episode of  The Road to Now,  Alexis Madrigal explains sustainable energy's deep roots in American history, and discusses the...