radio

Posthumous Limbaugh Book Skirts His Toxic Legacy

The collection of transcripts from Rush's radio program emphasizes the positive ways he built solidarity with his audience while occluding the negative ways he maintained it by stirring resentments against others and lying about his political opponents. 

Cajun Radio is Keeping Louisiana French Alive

"Cajuns were punished for speaking French in school, Cajun GIs left the region to fight in the world wars and learned English, the discovery of oil ushered in more English, and television further diluted the language."

The Enduring Appeal of the BBC's "Desert Island Discs" – the Longest Running Interview Show

The famous and would-be famous have faced the dilemma of telling the world about themselves by listing the records (and luxury items) they'd want with them on a desert island; post-1951 episodes are now available as podcasts.

Reviewed: The BBC: A People's History

David Hendy's book was built on complete access to BBC archives, but a reviewer finds that it's long on bureaucratic history and short on analysis of the programming that made the Beeb a national institution. 

Phil Schaap, Grammy-Winning Jazz D.J. and Historian, Dies at 70

“They say I’m a history teacher,” he said in a video interview for the National Endowment for the Arts, which this year named him a Jazz Master, the country’s highest official honor for a living jazz figure, but he viewed his role differently. “I teach listening.” 

'The Words That Made Us': Scholar Akhil Reed Amar On How To Better Understand The Constitution

"Scholar Akhil Reed Amar says the one thing every single American shares is the United States Constitution. He shares why he wants Americans to better understand the words that made us."

Why the New Deal Still Matters Today

Eric Rauchway of UC Davis joins Letters and Poltics on Pacifica Radio to discuss the ongoing legacy of the New Deal.   

The History Of Voting Rights In America

Historian Julian Zelizer connects the history of voting rights activism to efforts by states today to make voting more difficult. 

That Time Private US Media Companies Stepped in to Silence the Falsehoods and Incitements of a Major Public Figure … In 1938

by William Kovarik

"There’s not much that separates, on the one hand, the mad fanaticism that held Jews supposedly responsible for their own persecution in 1938 and, on the other, the fevered delusion of 2020."

Fitchburg State Professor Named to Library of Congress Task Force

Fitchburg (MA) State University professor Katherine Rye Jewell has been named to a Library of Congress task force for the preservation of college and community radio. 

D.C. Man Fights to Educate Americans on the Importance of Voting

“No matter what position you have, in a democracy if you don’t have the right to have your voice heard, you cannot really be considered a full citizen,” Phil Portlock said.

New PBS Documentary on New York Gossip Columnist Walter Winchell

Walter Winchell's gossip-driven approach to the news made him famous; his fame helped publicize the dangers of Nazism and overcome American isolationism before World War II. A new PBS documentary considers his career and legacy.

Throughline: The Electoral College (radio program)

NPR's Throughline launches its (mis)Representative Democracy series on the institutions of American elections with a focus on the Electoral College, featuring Alexander Keyssar, Carol Anderson and Akhil Reed Amar.

Prof. Kiara Vigil: Why It Is Important To Highlight Roles Of Native Americans In History (audio)

"This last spring, for the first time, I taught a class called Native Futures, and I thought that it would make sense to teach a class where Native people themselves not only are part of the past and the present, but they're going to be part of the future."

John F. Kennedy Did What Donald Trump Only Wishes He Could Do

by Paul Matzko

Rules to promote “fairness” or prevent “discrimination” can all too easily turn into tools for gaining partisan advantage at the expense of free speech, a free press, and a functioning democracy.

How History Informs Our Current Crisis (Audio)

Historian Julian Zelizer contextualizes the mask debate, the U.S. death toll, social distancing, and the U.S.'s international standing.

How Talk Radio Transformed American Politics

by Lara Freidenfelds

A review of Brian Rosenwald’s Talk Radio’s America: How an Industry Took Over a Political Party That Took Over the United States.

Susan Matt and Luke Fernandez: Before MOOCs, ‘Colleges of the Air’

Susan Matt is chair of the history department at Weber State University, and Luke Fernandez is Weber State’s manager for program and technology development. In 1937, as she lay ill in bed, Annie Oakes Huntington, a writer living in Maine, thought of ways to spend her time. She confided in a letter: “The radio has been a source of unfailing diversion this winter. I expect to enter all the courses at Harvard to be broadcasted.” Huntington was joining in an educational experiment sweeping the country in the 1920s and 30s: massive open on-air courses.As educators contemplate the MOOCs of our day—massive open online courses—they would do well to consider how earlier generations dealt with technology-enhanced education.