Georgia Ray, author of Grace Flandrau: Voice Interrupted, tells about her long interest in Flandrau, shares stories about the the Minnesota writer, and offers recommendations for further reading. Ray relates the events that spurred her to undertake the biography of a woman that one reviewer called "one of the great -- and most undeservedly forgotten -- descriptive writers of the twentieth century."

Daniel Hoisington reads "Christmas in a USA Hospital" -- taken from Notes from a Hospital, published in 1864. The author, who remains anonymous, describes preparations for a celebration in a ward of Union soldiers in December 1862. In the season that marks the birth of the "Prince of Peace," this writer ponders the reasons why the North has not won the Civil War.

Daniel Hoisington interviews Bill Christen, the author of Pauline Cushman: Spy of the Cumberland. He talks about the life of one of the Civil War's most well-known spies and about his research. Christen also shares some new information that he learned since the book was published.

Don Heinrich Tolzmann discusses the Dakota Conflict of 1862 as seen through the eyes of two nineteenth century German American historians: Rudolf Leonhart and Rev. Alexander Berghold. Then Linda Gerig Hoisington plays the "Lillian Valse" by Leonhart.

We look at the impact of World War I on German Americans through an interview with historian Don Heinrich Tolzmann. This episode includes a dramatic reading from A Long Year of Silence by author Kathryn Adams Doty.

In this Thistle episode, Kathryn Adams Doty talks about her careers as a movie actor, psychologist, and writer. Daniel Hoisington provides a short biography, followed by an interview with the author. Doty discusses the impact of World War I on German-Americans in Minnesota and how that influenced novel, A Long Year of Silence.