BackStory

The World’s Columbian Exposition opened 125 years ago this month. Known today as the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, it put the emerging United States and its host city on shining display. So, on this episode, Joanne, Ed, and Nathan explore the fairgrounds. They’ll discuss how electric power - a new experience for many Americans - illuminated the White City. And they’ll consider how this presentation of American progress came at a cost.    




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The penultimate Star Crossed Story Time features Sarah Lynne-Bowman and Jessica Schoolman reminiscing about a truly bad romance - bad for their stuffy business careers, to say the least.

It’s been fifty years since “Hair” debuted on Broadway. The groundbreaking play featured an integrated cast and defined the rock musical genre.

On this episode, Brian, Joanne and Nathan explore some of the many meanings Americans have attached to hair - as a marker of personal identity, a living connection to distant loved ones, and even as the root of business empire. 








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Star Crossed Story Time is back! Erika Chappell and Lexi Tripp are gushing about their baroque romance between the daughters of two rival noble houses. Remember Rose of Versailles? Yeah.

In our first Star Crossed Story Time, Morgan Ellis and Andy Munich tell the story of their wuxia-inspired romance between members of the Xiaolin and Wudang schools.

Joanne talks about the letters that flooded into FDR’s Whitehouse and how historians reach the public using social media. Also, Justin Reid, director of African American programs at Virginia Humanities, reflects on his family’s experience of slavery.



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Dungeon World co-designer and game streamer Adam Koebel shares insight on the relationship between design and play, and the future of streaming and game publishing.

In 2015, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly challenged Univision journalist Jorge Ramos on his role as a voice for Latinos in America. In an interview with the reporter on the O’Reilly Factor, he called Ramos “an advocate for people who enter the U.S.A. illegally.”

In recent decades, however, more journalists have vocally advocated for underrepresented communities. Websites like the theGrio.com are unapologetic about finding stories the mainstream media aren’t picking up. 

On this episode, Nathan, Joanne, and Brian look at the deep roots of advocacy in journalism. They’ll also explore the recent origins of objectivity and debate the duty of the Fourth Estate.






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Game designer and graphic artist John Harper shares his journey with Blades in the Dark, and with designing and iterating over a long and storied career in independent publishing. (You know, long in RPG years.)

As the opioid epidemic continues, Surgeon General Dr. Jerome M. Adams said this week that Americans should carry and learn to use naloxone, an overdose antidote. In this episode, Nathan, Ed and Brian look at America's long history with opioids - like opium, morphine and heroin. They’ll discuss how late 19th century doctors spurred the nation’s first addiction crisis and how race and class have shaped our perception of addicts and addiction.





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