The Road to Now

By RTN Productions

What's The Road to Now about?

Bob Crawford (The Avett Brothers) & Dr. Ben Sawyer (MTSU History) share conversations with great thinkers from a variety of backgrounds – historians, artists, legal scholars, political figures and more –who help us uncover the many roads that run between past and present.

For more information, visit TheRoadToNow.com

If you'd like to support our work, join us on Patreon: Patreon.com/TheRoadToNow

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The Road to Now episodes:

04.15.2024
The Harlem Globetrotters w/ Ben Green
Ben and Bob are heading to Tallahassee on April 27 for a live recording at Word of South Festival and the show is free! Click here for details. The Harlem Globetrotters are one of those great parts of American culture...
04.08.2024
#303 The Election of 2016 (and Ever After) w/ John Heilemann (Third Party Series #8)
The election of 2016 was a lot of things. It was a showdown between two candidates who had been household names for decades. It was the second time in five elections where the winning candidate lost the popular vote. And,...
04.01.2024
#302 The Election of 2000 w/ Doug Heye (Third Party Series #7)
Hear the extended version of this episode by supporting The Road to Now on Patreon! Click here to join. On December 13, 2000, Democratic Candidate Al Gore conceded that year’s Presidential Election to Republican George W. Bush. Gore’s concession...
03.25.2024
#301 The Election of 1992 w/ Julian Zelizer (Third Party Series #6)
In 1992, President George Bush’s bid for a second term did not go well. Despite taking 79% of the electoral vote in 1988, holding office during the collapse of communism in Europe, and serving as commander-in-chief during the US victory...
03.18.2024
#300 The Election of 1980 w/ Rick Perlstein (Third Party Series #5)
On November 4, 1980, California Republican Ronald Reagan trounced Jimmy Carter at the polls, beating the incumbent by almost 10 percentage points in the popular election and winning 489 of 538 electors. That type of victory combined with Reagan’s larger...
03.11.2024
#299 The Election of 1948 w/ Jefferson Cowie (Third Party Series #4)
The famous image of a victorious Harry Truman holding up a newspaper headlined “Dewey defeats Truman” is clear evidence that the 1948 Presidential election did not turn out the way many people had expected. That April, Truman’s approval rating had...
03.04.2024
#298 The Election of 1912 w/ Michael Patrick Cullinane (Third Party Series #3)
The Presidential election of 1912 was an unusual moment in American history. It featured an embattled incumbent President facing criticism from his former allies. It offered voters a choice between the sitting President and his predecessor. And when it was...
02.26.2024
#297 The Election of 1860 w/ Michael Green (Third Party Series #2)
The Presidential election of 1860 is one we Americans know well. That election sent Abraham Lincoln to the White House, southern enslavers to the exit door, and the United States into a bloody Civil War. Lincoln’s leadership in those years...
02.19.2024
#296 The Election of 1824 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky (Third Party Series #1)
The Election of 1824 was a turning point in American history. Long before the fall of 1824, Americans understood that the winner would be the first in America’s second generation to hold the Presidency. When the election began, all four...
02.12.2024
The Electoral College w/ Edward Foley
The Constitution empowers the electoral college to select the President, but the process for counting electors’ votes remains in the hands of Congress. In this episode, Constitutional Law Professor Edward Foley explains the origins of the electoral college, how and why the...
02.05.2024
#295 The Pursuit of Happiness w/ Jeffrey Rosen
The inalienable right to “the pursuit of happiness” is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, but what exactly does that phrase mean? While Americans today may associate it with the right to own land, opulence or some other act of...
01.29.2024
The Best Stories You've (Probably) Never Heard w/ Greg Jackson
One episode. Two historians/podcasters. Four stories from American history that you’ve probably never heard. And an unknown number of listeners that we hope will find these stories as fascinating and surprising as we do. Greg Jackson is the creator...
01.22.2024
The FBI w/ Stephen Underhill
The FBI has been the subject of criticism and concern since it was founded in 1908, but it has nevertheless become one of the most powerful, stable, and mythologized branches of the Executive Branch of the US government. In...
01.15.2024
#294 The Stephen Foster Story w/ Richard Blanton, Donna Phillips & Johnny Warren
Stephen Foster was America’s first great published musician. He wrote some of America’s great folk songs, including “Oh, Suzanna,” “Camptown Races” and “Hard Times Come Again No More,” and his music was the inspiration for Paul Green’s play “The Stephen...
01.08.2024
#293 New Year, Old Us w/ Ben & Bob
Ben & Bob kick off the new year with a conversation over some current events, including the history of New Year’s Resolutions (and why Bob doesn’t make them) and the 14th Amendment, and Ben shares what he learned about North...
12.11.2023
#292 It’s a Wonderful Life: The Story Behind America’s Favorite Christmas Film w/ Eric Smoodin
Dr. Eric Smoodin, film historian at the University of California- Davis and author of Regarding Frank Capra: Audience, Celebrity and American Film Studies, 1930-1960, joins Bob and Ben for the history of the people, the industry, and law that made...
12.04.2023
#291 A Forgotten History of American Suburbs w/ Tim Keogh
The suburbs have long been a symbol of American prosperity in the post-WWII era. Yet the contrast between suburban wealth and “inner city” poverty overlooks the stories of those living in suburbia who were unable to reach “the good life.”...
11.27.2023
Photographing the President w/ Pete Souza
As the person responsible for documenting the Obama Administration, Pete Souza spent more time with Barack Obama than almost anyone else, which left him with some deep in sights on Obama and the office of the Presidency. In this episode,...
11.20.2023
Faith in Freedom w/ Andrew Polk
Faith has played an important role in American history, but not always in the ways we’d expect. In this episode, Andy Polk joins Bob and Ben to explain how politicians, advertising executives and public relations experts bypassed America’s religious leaders,...
11.13.2023
#290 The Circus: An Exit Interview w/ Mark McKinnon
Bob welcomes Mark McKinnon for an exit interview about his work as co-producer and co-host of The Circus. Showtime announced last week that after eight seasons and 130 episodes this would be the final season of the political docuseries....
11.06.2023
Monsanto’s Past, Our Future w/ Bart Elmore
Monsanto’s Past, Our Future w/ Bart Elmore The Monsanto Company officially ceased to exist when it was acquired by Bayer in 2018, but its legacy lives on in courtrooms, factory towns and farms across the globe. Today the company’s...
10.30.2023
#289 The Dead Bodies in Your Favorite Museum w/ Tanya Marsh
Two things you probably don’t know: 1) your favorite museum probably holds human remains and 2) it’s completely legal to sell human bones on the internet. Not surprisingly, those two things have caused a lot of controversy. In this episode,...
10.23.2023
#288 Ukraine and Russia: The History Behind the War w/ Serhy Yekelchyk
When Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, he and many others assumed that Russia’s “special operation” would end in a quick victory. Eighteen months later, an independent Ukraine stands strong, while Russia’s position has grown...
10.16.2023
#287 Robert Hanssen: The FBI’s Most Damaging Spy w/ Major Garrett
FBI agent Robert Hanssen was one of the most damaging spies in US history. From 1979 to 2001, Hanssen delivered some of the United States governments’ most sensitive secrets to Soviet and Russian agents, who used them to not only...
10.09.2023
#286 Rounder Records and the Transformation of American Roots Music w/ David Menconi
From its founding in 1970, Rounder Records was different. What started as the passion project for three New England music lovers who wanted to preserve and proselytize folk and roots music, eventually grew into a record label with an eclectic...
10.02.2023
#285 The American Buffalo w/ Dayton Duncan
In the late 18th century, tens of millions of buffalo lived in North America. By the mid-1880s, they were on the brink of extinction. For the white settlers who sought to “conquer” the American west, and the Native people whose...
09.25.2023
# 284 Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell on Americana Music
What is Americana music? Is it a genre? A community? A refuge? Twenty four years after the founding of the Americana Music Association and thirteen years since the first Grammy was awarded for Best Americana Album, defining “Americana” remains tricky....
09.18.2023
Celebrating Levon Helm w/ John Barry & Larry Campbell
Although he passed away a decade ago, Levon Helm is still the voice of Americana music. Always will be, in my opinion. Levon was drummer for The Band, collaborator with Bob Dylan, actor, husband, father, and friend. In his new...
09.11.2023
#283 The Singers Talk w/ Jason Thomas Gordon
Jason Thomas Gordon spent nearly a decade interviewing some of the greatest vocalists in modern music to find out about their earliest experiences singing, the voices that influenced them growing up, and how they learned to find their own unique...
09.04.2023
The Kinks w/ Mark Doyle
The Kinks are one of the great rock bands of the 20th century and, like all artists, they reflect the times and places they’ve inhabited. In this episode, we speak with Mark Doyle about his excellent book The Kinks:...
08.28.2023
#282 Tecumseh & William Henry Harrison’s Struggle for a Nation w/ Peter Stark
The war between the US Army and the Native American confederation during the war of 1812 is a buried story in an often-overlooked event, yet its impact on the history of North America is profound. The leading figures on both...
08.21.2023
#281 Montgomery C. Meigs: Master Builder of the Union Army w/ Robert O’Harrow Jr.
Washington D.C. in the 1850s was a tale of two cities. It was the Capitol city of a rapidly expanding new nation while at the same time ground zero for a politically fractured and divided nation hurtling toward disunion. Standing...
08.14.2023
#280 Standard Deviations: The politics of education in Florida and beyond w/ Ana Goñi-Lessan & Andrew Polk
The recent changes to Florida’s education system have gotten nationwide attention, with similar stories playing out across the US. In this episode, Ben & Bob investigate the nature of these reforms, who is behind them, and how they may impact...
08.07.2023
#279 Warren G. Harding and Other Affairs w/ Ben & Bob
Ben & Bob have been on the road for most of the summer, so in this episode they catch up to talk about the 100th anniversary of the death of Warren G. Harding, the feedback they got from their conversation...
07.31.2023
Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism w/ Edward Baptist
Slavery was an integral part of the American republic from the moment of independence until the abolition of the so-called “peculiar institution” with the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865. The social and economic impact of the slave system,...
07.24.2023
George Carlin's American Dream w/ Michael Bonfiglio & Kliph Nesteroff
George Carlin had a comedy career that spanned half a century, and his take on the US remains relevant more than a decade after his death in 2008. The new HBO documentary George Carlin’s American Dream tells Carlin’s...
07.17.2023
#278 Artificial Intelligence w/ Roger McNamee
Roger McNamee has spent decades helping American tech companies secure financing. In the last few years, however, he’s become well-known for helping American citizens secure themselves against tech companies. After helping convince Mark Zuckerberg to retain control over Facebook, Roger...
07.10.2023
The Rise and Fall of the American Suburbs w/ Kyle Riismandel
In the years after World War II, Americans moved to the suburbs in search of the peace and safety that many came to equate with the “American Dream.” By the end of the 1970s, however, suburbanites had come sense that...
07.03.2023
Benjamin Franklin w/ Dayton Duncan & David Schmidt
It’s difficult to fathom how Benjamin Franklin accomplished so much in a single lifetime. It’s equally difficult to imagine how to take such an incredible life and consolidate it into four hours of documentary film. In this episode, we cover...
06.26.2023
#277 The Allman Brothers’ Journey to Fillmore East w/ Bob Beatty
The Allman Brothers’ 1971 album At Fillmore East features one of the era’s great rock bands at its prime, selling over a million copies despite not producing a single “hit” song. It is also the last album produced by the...
06.19.2023
#276 Christianity and American Politics in the 21st Century w/ John Fea
John Fea is taking on the history of Christianity and American politics in the 21st century. In three volumes. In this (single) episode, we talk about this tremendous task that John is undertaking and also get his thoughts on...
06.12.2023
Juneteenth w/ Annette Gordon-Reed
Juneteenth, which celebrates the emancipation of enslaved Americans at the end of the Civil War, has gone from a local holiday in Texas to a national day of celebration for many Americans. In this episode we speak with legal scholar...
06.05.2023
#275 No Labels w/ Mark McKinnon
Mark McKinnon is a political advisor, reform advocate, and host of Showtime’s The Circus. In this episode he joins Ben & Bob to talk about his work to found the non-partisan group No Labels, which advocates for independent candidates...
05.29.2023
#274 The Original Green New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps w/ Neil Maher#274
In the last few years, many on the left have been calling for a “Green New Deal,” but we might have already had that. Between 1933 and 1942, the Civilian Conservation Corps enlisted more than three million young men in...
05.22.2023
#273 Seven Years of RTN w/ Doug Heye & Margaret Talev
It’s been seven years since Ben & Bob launched the first episode of The Road to Now, so we invited two of our early guests – Doug Heye & Margaret Talev – to join us for a conversation about how...
05.15.2023
#272 Country Capitalism w/ Bartow Elmore
The “Amazon economy” seems like something new, but it rests on the physical and intellectual infrastructure built by those who came long before the age of the internet and leaves many of the same marks on the environment. Prominent in...
05.08.2023
Reaganland w/ Richard Perlstein
Today's Republican party looks a lot different than it did just a few decades ago, but it rests on many of the same organizations and ideologies that formed the modern conservative movement in the 1970s. In this episode, Rick Perlstein joins...
05.01.2023
#271 American Ramble w/ Neil King Jr.
In 2021, Neil King Jr. threw a few basic items into a backpack and walked from his home in Washington, DC to New York City. Along the way he met new people, uncovered forgotten moments of history, and spent many...
04.24.2023
#270 Women & American Slavery w/ Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers
Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers’ is a historian whose work has shed new light on the roles that women played in American slavery. In this episode, she joins Ben and Bob to share some of the significant findings of her work, the...
04.17.2023
#269 The Archaeology of Dust w/ Anita Radini
For most of us, dust is a surface-level annoyance. For Anita Radini, it is a fountain of information about the past. In this episode, Anita joins us to share the fascinating new details about the lives of Medieval women that...

What's The Road to Now about?

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The Road to Now episodes:

The Harlem Globetrotters w/ Ben Green

#303 The Election of 2016 (and Ever After) w/ John Heilemann (Third Party Series #8)

#302 The Election of 2000 w/ Doug Heye (Third Party Series #7)

#301 The Election of 1992 w/ Julian Zelizer (Third Party Series #6)

#300 The Election of 1980 w/ Rick Perlstein (Third Party Series #5)

#299 The Election of 1948 w/ Jefferson Cowie (Third Party Series #4)

#298 The Election of 1912 w/ Michael Patrick Cullinane (Third Party Series #3)

#297 The Election of 1860 w/ Michael Green (Third Party Series #2)

#296 The Election of 1824 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky (Third Party Series #1)

The Electoral College w/ Edward Foley

#295 The Pursuit of Happiness w/ Jeffrey Rosen

The Best Stories You've (Probably) Never Heard w/ Greg Jackson

The FBI w/ Stephen Underhill

#294 The Stephen Foster Story w/ Richard Blanton, Donna Phillips & Johnny Warren

#293 New Year, Old Us w/ Ben & Bob

#292 It’s a Wonderful Life: The Story Behind America’s Favorite Christmas Film w/ Eric Smoodin

#291 A Forgotten History of American Suburbs w/ Tim Keogh

Photographing the President w/ Pete Souza

Faith in Freedom w/ Andrew Polk

#290 The Circus: An Exit Interview w/ Mark McKinnon

Monsanto’s Past, Our Future w/ Bart Elmore

#289 The Dead Bodies in Your Favorite Museum w/ Tanya Marsh

#288 Ukraine and Russia: The History Behind the War w/ Serhy Yekelchyk

#287 Robert Hanssen: The FBI’s Most Damaging Spy w/ Major Garrett

#286 Rounder Records and the Transformation of American Roots Music w/ David Menconi

#285 The American Buffalo w/ Dayton Duncan

# 284 Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell on Americana Music

Celebrating Levon Helm w/ John Barry & Larry Campbell

#283 The Singers Talk w/ Jason Thomas Gordon

The Kinks w/ Mark Doyle

#282 Tecumseh & William Henry Harrison’s Struggle for a Nation w/ Peter Stark

#281 Montgomery C. Meigs: Master Builder of the Union Army w/ Robert O’Harrow Jr.

#280 Standard Deviations: The politics of education in Florida and beyond w/ Ana Goñi-Lessan & Andrew Polk

#279 Warren G. Harding and Other Affairs w/ Ben & Bob

Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism w/ Edward Baptist

George Carlin's American Dream w/ Michael Bonfiglio & Kliph Nesteroff

#278 Artificial Intelligence w/ Roger McNamee

The Rise and Fall of the American Suburbs w/ Kyle Riismandel

Benjamin Franklin w/ Dayton Duncan & David Schmidt

#277 The Allman Brothers’ Journey to Fillmore East w/ Bob Beatty

#276 Christianity and American Politics in the 21st Century w/ John Fea

Juneteenth w/ Annette Gordon-Reed

#275 No Labels w/ Mark McKinnon

#274 The Original Green New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps w/ Neil Maher#274

#273 Seven Years of RTN w/ Doug Heye & Margaret Talev

#272 Country Capitalism w/ Bartow Elmore

Reaganland w/ Richard Perlstein

#271 American Ramble w/ Neil King Jr.

#270 Women & American Slavery w/ Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers

#269 The Archaeology of Dust w/ Anita Radini