Long before Idaho became a political footnote, one man from the Gem State helped shape global foreign policy.

In this episode, historian Russ Tremayne joins host Justin Mattson to trace Borah’s legacy, his contradictions, and the shadow he cast on the generation of Idaho leaders that followed.

It’s a story about one senator’s global impact and how a small state helped steer the course of world history.

LeRoy Wilkins was convicted of a crime no one could prove. Years later, when the state of Idaho finally pardoned him, it added one condition: he could never set foot in Twin Falls County again. In this episode, Justin Mattson and historian Justin Vipperman trace the strange and painful saga of Wilkins’ legal exile, the only case of its kind in Idaho history, and ask what it says about race, justice, and erasure in small-town America.

What makes an old building worth saving? And what do we lose when it's gone?

In this episode of The Stories Your City Forgot, host Justin Mattson sits down with historian Emily Fritchman Mahaney to explore the quiet power of local architecture, not just grand theaters and iconic facades, but the everyday homes and storefronts that hold a city’s memory.

To learn more about the walking tour or to take the tour yourself, you can follow this link!

It's not every day you get to see someone become an outlaw in real time. What does that process look like? How does one become notorious? How does one create a mythology of oneself? Our guest today brings us the story of one example out of Idaho, and it's a story you don't want to forget.

Across the American West, labor camps once teemed with workers brought in to harvest crops, build infrastructure, and support wartime industry. Most of these camps have been erased from public memory—none more so than El Milagro in southern Idaho. In this episode, historian Dr. Russ Tremayne guides us through the complex and often overlooked history of El Milagro, from its origins as a New Deal project to its role in housing Japanese American internees, Mexican braceros, Dust Bowl refugees, and even Jamaican laborers during World War II. We talk about what labor looks like when it’s necessary but unequal, and what’s at stake when the physical traces of history vanish. This was a story your city forgot—until now.

In this episode, we delve into the multifaceted power of Latin American film as both art and activism, from Brazil’s Cinema Novo movement to the archival voices of Black and Indigenous resistance throughout the hemisphere. Graden shares how protest shaped his early worldview, how teaching became his tool for connection, and how memory lives on through storytelling, both on screen and off.

This is a conversation about film, freedom, and the stories that shape who we become, one reel, one student, one archive at a time.

The number of different groups with history within the United States and around the world is staggering. Oftentimes, the history of many organizations and groups goes lost to the records of time. To help bring the history of one of those niche groups to the records table, Dr. Rebecca Scofield brings us the details of one such organization in this Story Your City Forgot.

If you want to check out the archives from Dr. Scofield, you can visit the website here.