History Talk

Join hosts Patrick Potyondy and Leticia Wiggins and their guests, historians David Brakke, Tina Sessa, and Daniel Watkins as they discuss Pope Francis—the “people’s pope”—and how his actions fit into the Church's traditions and its commitment to social justice. Listen and explore hundreds of years of history of a group with over a billion adherents!

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Posted December 2014

Join hosts Leticia Wiggins and Patrick Potyondy in a conversation with historians—and award-winning teachers—Kevin Boyle, Stephanie Shaw, and Hasan Kwame Jeffries about the importance and difficulties of teaching race and civil rights in the classroom. “Learning about the Civil Rights Movement,” Boyle declares, “really explores the tension between America’s promise and the reality of the United States.” The first part of this conversation, referred to in the current episode, can be found in our previous podcast, “Putting Race on Display: The National Civil Rights Museum.”

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Posted December 2014

Join hosts Leticia Wiggins and Patrick Potyondy for part one of a two-segment History Talk on race in America. In “Putting Race on Display,” they interview Ohio State historians Stephanie Shaw and Hassan Jeffries about their work renovating the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. “It really is a place,” says Jeffries, “for living history.”

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Posted November 2014

Twenty-five years ago this autumn, the world watched in amazement as events in Eastern Europe transformed the planet. Socialist states that had looked a permanent fixture on the map of Europe disintegrated, often with little resistance. And the Berlin Wall—that most iconic symbol of the Cold War—came tumbling down in November. The sense of possibility and astonishment were palpable: the world could change in the blink of an eye if only we tried.

But where are we now, twenty-five years later? Why should 1989 matter to us now? On this edition of History Talk, hosts Patrick Potyondy and Leticia Wiggins welcome historians Nicholas Breyfogle and Theodora Dragostinova and Slavic Studies Professor Angela Brintlinger as they consider these questions and more as we remember the year that changed it all.

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Posted October 2014

Listen as History Talk explores the relationship between American university sports and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA. In this episode, Origins authors Marc Horger, Steve Conn, and Anna McCullough join hosts Patrick Potyondy and Leticia Wiggins and chew on the definition of amateurism, talk over the growth of college athletics, and hash out how each has shaped the university yesterday and today.

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Posted September 2014

In this episode of History Talk, host Leticia Wiggins interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Taylor Branch on the contentious yet interlinked history of the American university system and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA. In addition to completing the monumental King Era Trilogy, Branch has published The Cartel: Inside the Rise and Imminent Fall of the NCAA. He has also been featured in The Atlantic, MSNBC, and NPR to list but a few places.

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Posted September 2014

The summer of 2014 marked the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I. In this month’s podcast, three Ohio State historians travelled far and wide to bring us first-hand stories of how the Great War is being commemorated across the globe. Brenna Miller joined us from Sarajevo (Bosnia), where Gavrilo Princip assassinated the Archduke, the famous spark that set off the war. Kirsten Hildonen phoned in from Belgrade (Serbia), an epicenter of the Great War still feeling aftershocks of the wars of the past 25 years. And Keshia Lai reported from Singapore, then an important colony in Britain’s Asian empire and now an economic powerhouse.

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Posted August 2014

The rapid shift in attitudes toward same-sex marriage in the United States has been one of the most dramatic cultural transformations in recent memory. But with these changes have come many questions and tensions. Is the focus on the politics of marriage limiting to broader rights movement? How have popular representations like those in Modern Family, crime procedurals, or even Levi’s jeans commercials changed the public’s perceptions, and has it always been for the better? How has the study and teaching of gay and lesbian history changed? What is the relationship between sexuality and neighborhood transformation (often termed “gentrification”)? In this month’s episode of History Talk there’s something for everyone as hosts Patrick Potyondy and Leticia Wiggins discuss the historical background behind the news headlines with three experts: Daniel Rivers and Clayton Howard are two Ohio State history professors, and J. Brendan Shaw is a doctoral candidate in the Ohio State University English department.

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Posted July 2014

Many consider suicide bombing an exclusively recent or even novel phenomenon, carried out by crazed individuals that defy all reason. But is this actually the case? When and why did suicide bombing begin? Are there similarities among Russian anarchists of the nineteenth century, kamikaze pilots, and today’s suicide bombers? How can the history inform policy decisions to try and prevent such acts? Join your hosts Leticia Wiggins and Patrick Potyondy who interview guests Corbin Williamson, Jonathan Romaneski, and Jeffrey Lewis as they tackle these and other tough questions on the terrors of suicide bombing.

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Posted June 2014

Jesse Owens winning four gold medals in front of Adolf Hitler in 1936 Berlin. The 1942 Dynamo Kyiv soccer team which went on to defeat Hitler’s squad after being told, “If you win, you die.” Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising gloved hands in the Black Power salute in 1968. Gay rights and Vladimir Putin’s Russia at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The role of sport in dismantling South Africa’s apartheid regime and the 2010 World Cup in putting the nation on display on the global stage. And coming up, Brazil: about to host to the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics and home to tumultuous popular demonstrations. Politics and international sports seem to go hand-in-hand, but why? Join History Talk hosts Leticia Wiggins and Patrick Potyondy as they discuss the historical dimensions of this contentious topic with experts Russell Field, Marc Horger, and Steven Conn.

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Posted May 2014

A transcript of this podcast is available here.