How To Be A Historian

This is the final episode in my three part series on LaGuardia and Mamdani. I’ve had an amazing time researching and educating myself on their origins, beliefs and political careers. So far, I’ve talked about how both LaGuardia and Mamdani came into New York politics as outsiders who promised major changes to the city. But promising reform is one thing — actually building enough of both a political following and power in genral to carry it out is another.

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This is the second episode in my three part series on Fiorello LaGuardia and Zohran Mamdani. Last episode we covered their immigrant backgrounds and how that influenced their beliefs and later careers. In this episode we’ll cover their socialist beliefs (and for LaGuardia, socialist-adjacent) and how it influenced their decision making and goals as mayor. 

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This is the first episode of a three part series on Zohran Mamdani, the popular and populist democratic socialist mayor of New York, and his ideological predecessor, Fiorello LaGuardia. 

I’m super interested in making connections between the past and present and that’s the goal of this series. Mamdani and LaGuardia were of different political parties and one is a professed democratic socialist while the other was not however the similarities are stark. In these three episodes, I’ll trace their lives and decisions side by side showing their motivations, reasoning and how the historical context of the time affected their decision making and agendas. This first episode will cover their upbringing, immigrant backgrounds and how xenophobia was rampant 100 years ago when LaGuardia was growing up and still is today. 

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I had the huge honor of getting the opportunity to interview the historian, Yale professor and pulitzer-prize winning author Beverly Gage. Our interview centered around two overarching topics. First off, we discussed her latest book "This Land Is Your Land," which recounts her experiences during a series of road trips to historical sites around America in the lead-up to the 2026 semiquincentennial. The book explores how we as Americans confront and discuss the past amidst our tumultuous present. I wanted to post this today on July 4th because in the book, Professor Gage explores how in past moments of chaos and change Americans comforted themselves with the belief that our country is always moving forward to a better more democratic nation. In times like these, it might be difficult to feel that way but hopefully this book helps us see how much progress we as Americans have and continue to make in the pursuit of a more perfect union. This was one of the first history books I read that focused on how we portray history in the present day and it inspired me to learn more about how history is discussed and used by those right now. Professor Gage and I discussed what motivated her to write the book and what she encountered on her journey, in addition to more specific conversations surrounding topics and sites she focused on. In the second half of our conversation we talked about her professional journey, love for history, and how she became a professor and author. 

I hope you enjoy the episode! 

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On this episode I interview Mitch Abidor an author, historian and translator. This episode is the first in a two part series of interviews with Mr. Abidor. We talk about what it is like being a historian, his professional journey, what his days look like and his work as a translator. In the second part episode we discuss the events of the Paris Commune, which he has focused on in many of his translations.

Mr. Abidor has published over a dozen books, largely focusing on French radical history, including A Socialist History of the French Revolution by Jean Jaurès and Victor Serge's Notebooks, 1936-1947. His writings have appeared in publications in the United States, France, Brazil, and Germany. 

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In this episode, I got the chance to discuss some history with Brooklyn's very own Borough Historian, Ron Schweiger. Each Borough President appoints a Borough Historian - whose job it is to preserve historic areas, educate others and serve as a resource to answer questions about the borough's history. Mr. Schweiger was appointed to that position by Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz, in 2002. Mr. Schweiger has lived in Brooklyn all of his life and conducts walking tours through some of Brooklyn’s historic communities spreading his knowledge of Brooklyn’s rich history. He additionally utilizes his collection of over 3,000 slides of old Brooklyn street scenes to educate its residents and is currently working to get Beverly Square West landmark status. I'm so glad to have Mr. Schweiger on the podcast and I hope you all enjoyed our conversation!

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In the dictionary, the word populist is defined as “a person, especially a politician, who strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.” 

Across the world, from the Netherlands, to Romania, to India, populists are gaining power - reshaping their countries in the face of huge opposition from many and die hard fanaticism from others. This is not the first time a tsunami of Trumpism has washed across the world however. In my recent series on the rise of Hitler, I covered populism and fascism in Germany. 

In this new episode, we are once again going back to post WW1 Europe but instead of covering an Austrian corporal, we will look at the story of an Italian journalist - the godfather of fascism, Benito Mussolini. 

But, instead of simply relaying history and telling a story of events that occurred a century ago, I’ve decided to put a modern twist on this new series (if it becomes one). As I referenced earlier, there has been a recent uptick in right-wing populism globally. I hope to connect the events of the past to the present to make a stark historical connection. 

In this episode, I mainly focus on Mussolini's early life, his views, and the Italian history that shaped him (the Risorgimento). The next episode will focus more on his transition to fascism and Meloni as well.

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