The Road to Now

Michael Bonfiglio is an award-winning filmmaker whose work as a director and producer includes May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers (2017), the ESPN 30 for 30 documentaries You Don't Know Bo: The Legend of Bo Jackson (2012) and Doc & Darryl (2016), and From the Ashes (2017). Mike joins Ben & Bob to talk about the art of making documentary films, how his work engages with the historical narrative, and how the coronavirus epidemic has changed filmmakers work. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network.

Since going viral with his Liberal Redneck videos in 2016, comedian Trae Crowder has become well-known for sharing a perspective that is southern in origin, but not quite what most people expect. In this episode, Trae joins Bob and Ben for a conversation about southern culture, the south's bizarre embrace of Donald Trump, and how his work helped a lot of southerners with less conservative viewpoints to 'come out of the closet.' We also talk about how Trae's family and education helped to shape his understanding of the world, and what it's like when you have your work suddenly go viral. For more on Trae, visit the WellRED Comedy Tour's website and subscribe to The WellRed Podcast, w/ Trae Crowder, Corey Ryan Forrester, and Drew Morgan. We also announce that this summer, The Road to Now will be going to a bi-weekly schedule. We've got some great guests lined up, and you can join us for the recordings by supporting us on Patreon! For details: Patreon.com/TheRoadToNow This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network.

There was a lot happening when Bob and Ben launched the first episode of The Road to Now on May 19th, 2016. It was the year of a Presidential election, there was an intense feeling of partisanship in the air, and people were everywhere- at concerts, in classes, on the sidewalk…. Four years later, Bob and Ben are still going strong, so we decided to make this year's anniversary episode a party and to invite our Patrons. It's not a typical episode of RTN, but we hope you enjoy it! Thanks to everyone who has supported us on Patreon, attended a live show, bought our merch, told a friend about our work, or even just taken the time to listen to an episode. RTN matters to us because it matters to you. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network.

Baseball is part of America's cultural fabric, and few people know the game and its place in society as well as Jayson Stark. As a celebrated sportswriter, Jayson has witnessed baseball's transformation for more than four decades, and has had a front-row seat to some of the biggest moments in the sport's history. In this episode, Bob & Ben talk with Jayson about baseball's place in American culture, how the scandals in the sport reflect moments in American history, and how Major League Baseball has persevered through some of our country's hardest times. Jayson also talks about his path from beat writer covering the Phillies to award-winning sportswriter, what he considers important when casting his vote for the Baseball Hall of Fame, and why nobody wants to visit the National Baseball Hall of Purity. Jayson Stark covers Major League Baseball for The Athletic. In 2019 he received the 2019 J.G. Taylor Spink Award, for which he was honored at the Baseball Hall of Fame. He is the author of three books on baseball, has won an Emmy for his work on Baseball Tonight and is a two-time winner of the Pennsylvania sportswriter-of-the-year award. He's so good at covering baseball that Topps honored him with his own baseball card in 2017. Thank you to everyone on Patreon who joined us for our live zoom recording! This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network.

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany launched an attack on the USSR that caught Soviet leaders completely off guard. Over the next four years, the Red Army was transformed, as were the lives of more than 34 million men and women who served in its ranks. In this episode, Ben speaks with Brandon Schechter about his new book The Stuff of Soldiers: A History of the Red Army in World War II Through Objects (Cornell University Press, 2019) and how examining the objects used during World War II- from rifles, to shovels, to spoons- can give us a deeper understanding of soldiers' lives and the war as a whole. Dr. Brandon Schechter is Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Columbia University, where he specializes in the history of the Soviet Union and material culture. The images discussed in this episode can be seen on our website at http://www.theroadtonow.com/episodes/e170. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network.

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 new book The Kinks: Songs of the Semi-Detached (Reaktion Books, 2020) and how the band, their origins, and Ray Davies' lyrics can teach us a lot about both the real and imagined spaces of mid-20th Century England. Dr. Mark Doyle is Professor of History at Middle Tennessee State University, where he specializes in the history of the British Empire. His research and teaching have won him numerous awards including the Stansky Book Prize (co-winner, 2017) and MTSU's Outstanding Teacher Award (2014-15). Ben once described him as "the Patton Oswalt of academic twitter," so we recommend you follow him there at @DrMarkDoyle. The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

This is a rebroadcast of an episode that originally aired on March 20, 2017 Note: Given that we are relying more than ever on technology to communicate and work during this epidemic, we thought it was a good time to share our interview w/ Nicholas Carr. The internet has revolutionized the human experience in the 21st century. Our ability to communicate with others, find locations in unfamiliar places, and access information from across the globe has never been easier, and new media like blogs and podcasts have connected voices with audiences in ways that were not possible just a few decades ago. Yet, despite all these incredible benefits, many of us are beginning to sense that all this connectivity is affecting the way we think and interact with one another. How is the internet affecting our brains, and should we be concerned about it? How is the internet different from other media technologies such as print, radio and television? And is google making us stupid? In this episode of the Road to Now, we get the answer from New York Times Best Selling Author Nicholas Carr. A special thank you to Middle Tennessee State University and Dr. Susan Myers-Shirk for arranging this interview as part of MTSU's Scholars' Week Talk. For more on this or other episodes of The Road to Now, please visit our website: www.TheRoadToNow.com. This episode of the Road to Now is a re-air of episode #149 The History of Technology w/ Nicholas Carr. You can get the other episodes in our history of energy series by supporting us on Patreon.

As people try to make sense of the Coronavirus epidemic, some have unfortunately turned to conspiracy theories linking Covid-19 to the installation of 5G networks. In this episode, Bob and Ben speak with Stacy Wood about her research on conspiracy theories, the past conspiracy theories that have converged in the 5G theory, and the reasons some people are willing to accept these explanations of the world in spite of strong evidence to the contrary. Dr. Stacy Wood is Assistant Professor at the School of Computing and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a critical scholar of archives, information policy and information studies who engages with the legal and cultural aspects of records and technology. You can find out more about her at her personal website, StacyEWood.com and follow her on twitter at @StacyEWood. You can also hear Stacy in RTN episodes #12 and #146. The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

When we think of epidemics, we often imagine the central struggle as between microbe and epidemiologist. But as the coronavirus outbreak has reminded us, our individual actions can compound in ways that have a very real implications for any epidemic. The narrative we adopt to understand these events- ie the story we tell ourselves about who is responsible, who can save us, and what power we have in that struggle- shapes our decisions, and therefore shapes the outcome of these tragic moments. In this episode we speak with Dr. Priscilla Wald about her research on what she calls the "outbreak narrative" and how understanding it might help us respond better in the present. Dr. Priscilla Wald is R. Florence Brinkley Distinguished Professor of English at Duke University and the author of Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative, (Duke University Press, 2008). The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Based on what you've told us on social media, it's time for a break from the outbreak. So in this episode, Bob and Ben talk about the French Revolution, nationalism and colonization (aka the books assigned for Bob's Graduate European History Seminar). They also talk about the art of teaching and Ben's approach to transitioning to teaching his history classes online (which he recently had to do for an unspecified reason). And, admittedly, they did slip up a couple of times and mention a particular epidemic, but mostly in a positive way. (It's mostly at the end.) The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.