All Of It with Alison Stewart

[REBROADCAST FROM FEBRUARY 22, 2021] We present the full conversation from February's installment of our “Full Bio” series with historian David Blight about his book, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, which won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for History. Blight used new information drawn from private collections to explore the work and life of Douglass. We start with a look at Douglass’s early life as an enslaved person, how he learned to read, and how he escaped to the North from Baltimore in 1838.

[REBROADCAST FROM FEBRUARY 26, 2021] We wrap up February’s installment of the "Full Bio" series with a look at the last years of Frederick Douglass’s life, including his experience as minister and consul general to Haiti. Historian David W. Blight describes the reaction to Frederick Douglass’s death in February of 1895 as well as why Douglass’s second marriage to a woman named Helen Pitts became one of the biggest scandals in 19th century America.

[REBROADCAST FROM FEBRUARY 23, 2021] For the second installment of our February “Full Bio” series, historian David W. Blight describes what made Frederick Douglass such an engaging speaker that he became one of the most powerful voices in 19th century America. Plus, we’ll look at how the prominent abolitionist’s views on slavery evolved in the 1830’s and 1840’s.

[REBROADCAST FROM Apr 6, 2023] Brandee Younger returns to the show, this time in-studio, to perform songs live from her new album, Brand New Life, out tomorrow. The album celebrates the work of trailblazing jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby and features contributions from Pete Rock, 9th Wonder, Meshell Ndegeocello and Makaya McCraven.

NOTE: This segment has been edited to remove one performance to which WNYC does not have the rights to include in the podcast.

[REBROADCAST FROM Jun 1, 2023] Rock band The Revivalists release a new album, Pour It Out Into the Night, this Friday. Founding band members David Shaw and Zack Feinberg join us live in Studio 5 with a preview and live performance.

[REBROADCAST FROM May 18, 2023] Grammy-nominated country singer-songwriter Brandy Clark is now also a Tony nominee. Clark is a co-writer of the music and lyrics to the hit new Broadway musical, "Shucked." And on Friday, she's releasing a new self-titled solo album, produced by Brandi Carlile. She joins us live in the studio to perform some songs from the album and talk about her work.

[REBROADCAST FROM Dec 7, 2022] The singer songwriter and proud Vermonter Noah Kahan's latest album, Stick Season, is a tribute to the time of the year between fall and winter, what locals in his hometown call stick season. Coming off his nationwide tour of the album, Kahan joins us in studio for a Listening Party, and also performs some special acoustic versions of songs from the album.

[REBROADCAST FROM Apr 28, 2023] The Heavy Heavy are a UK band based in Brighton, led by Will Turner and Georgie Fuller. Last year they released their first EP, Life and Life Only, and before they release their debut album next year, the band is hitting the road for an extensive tour around the U.S. Turner, Fuller, and the rest of The Heavy Heavy join us in studio for a live performance as well as a discussion about their sound and to preview the new album.

[REBROADCAST FROM July 5, 2022] If you were educated in a U.S elementary school, you may have heard the story of how "The Star-Spangled Banner" was written. At a battle in Baltimore during the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key watched the British bomb American forts, and decided to write patriotic lyrics that eventually became the country's national anthem. But the story of the lyrics, how Key's words became the anthem, and how its role in our culture has changed throughout the last two hundred years, is much more complex. Today, you can hear the national anthem in many aspects of life, be it a high school football game, a concert, or a graduation. Ahead of July 4 celebrations, Mark Clague, professor of musicology at the University of Michigan, joins to discuss his new book, O Say Can You Hear?: A Cultural Biography of "The Star-Spangled Banner.

A recent episode of WNYC's Radiolab, called Family People, follows the story of editor Alex Neason and her efforts to find the truth behind how she got her last name. Because Alex's father served in the military, her family was constantly traveling. As a result, her name became the most important part of her identity. However, in 2021, after her grandfather passed away, she noticed that her great-grandfather had a different last name, and wanted to get to the bottom of her family history. Neason joins us alongside genealogist Nicka Sewell-Smith, who helped Alex during the reporting process, to talk about how they got to the bottom of the Neason name, and take your calls.