Fair warning, listeners: in this episode of Drafting the Past, my guest and I geeked out pretty hard for a minute about our favorite pens. I'm hoping a lot of you can relate, but if not, you'll just have to forgive our moment of office supply nerdiness. I'm Kate Carpenter, the host of this podcast about the craft of writing history. In this episode, I'm thrilled to be joined by Karin Wulf. Karin is a historian and the current director and librarian of the John Carter Brown Library, as well as a professor at Brown University. Previously, she was the director of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. She writes and speaks regularly for public audiences. Her new book, Lineage: Genealogy and the Politics of Connection in British America, 1680-1820, came out this summer. In this episode, you'll hear me talk with Karin about what it was like to research a book whose sources were scattered in many different archives, and how she keeps her research and writing alive even in the midst of a very busy schedule. She also told me about a little archival challenge that she likes to give herself that I think will make you smile. Let's be real, we're all nerds here, at least when it comes to history.

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For links to the books we talked about and a complete transcript, visit draftingthepast.com. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more.