Now & Then

Latest Episodes:

Gastropod: The Milk of Life Jul 26, 2022

Show notes

Heather and Joanne are off this week, so we’re showcasing an episode from another Vox Media Podcast Network show: “The Milk of Life,” from Gastropod. On Gastropod, hosts Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley explore the history and science behind everyday foods. Past episodes have examined everything from the evolution of the cookie to the surprising impact the coffee bean has had on world history.

In this installment, originally aired on June 21st, Cynthia and Nicola use the ongoing baby formula shortage as inspiration for a wide-ranging investigation of the origins and development of formula.

Heather and Joanne will be back next Tuesday with a brand new episode of Now & Then, which will focus on how the missing Secret Service records from the days before January 6 evoke other political mysteries from American history.

In the meantime, enjoy this episode of the Gastropod podcast. And if you like it, you can find more episodes of Gastropod at link.chtbl.com/Gastropod. New episodes drop every other Tuesday. For a transcript and show notes for “The Milk of Life,” head to gastropod.com/the-milk-of-life

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Militia Movements Jul 19, 2022

Show notes

How have American militias shaped the nation? And why do ‘militia movements’ keep returning to the fore of our national politics?

On Now & Then, Heather and Joanne discuss the role of militias in the 1786 Shays’ Rebellion, during the tumultuous Reconstruction years, and in the 1990s ‘Modern Militia Movement.’

Join CAFE Insider to listen to “Backstage,” where Heather and Joanne chat each week about the anecdotes and ideas that formed the episode. Head to: cafe.com/history

For more historical analysis of current events, sign up for the free weekly CAFE Brief newsletter, featuring Time Machine, a weekly article that dives into an historical event inspired by each episode of Now & Then: cafe.com/brief

For references & supplemental materials, head to: cafe.com/now-and-then/militia-movements

Now & Then is presented by CAFE and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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Racism and the Second Amendment (with Carol Anderson) Jul 12, 2022

Show notes

What are the origins of the Second Amendment? And what can America’s painful racial history illuminate about our national relationship to guns?

On this special Live Taping of Now & Then, Heather and Joanne talk to Carol Anderson, professor of African American Studies at Emory University and author of The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America.

The trio discuss how the recent spate of mass shootings — and Supreme Court decisions striking down gun control measures in liberal-leaning cities and states — echo the longstanding inequalities embedded in American gun ownership.

Join CAFE Insider to listen to “Backstage,” where Heather and Joanne chat each week about the anecdotes and ideas that formed the episode. Head to: cafe.com/history

For references & supplemental materials, head to: cafe.com/now-and-then/racism-and-the-second-amendment-with-carol-anderson

Now & Then is presented by CAFE and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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Alcohol in American Politics Jul 05, 2022

Show notes

Following the news of Rudy Giuliani’s inebriated advice to Donald Trump on election night, Heather and Joanne dive into the historical role of alcohol in American politics. How have the norms around alcohol shifted — and how has that impacted our history?

Heather and Joanne cover Franklin Pierce’s alcoholism, Warren Harding’s Prohibition-era hypocrisy, and the 1970s reckonings over alcohol in Congress.

Join CAFE Insider to listen to “Backstage,” where Heather and Joanne chat each week about the anecdotes and ideas that formed the episode. Head to: cafe.com/history

Executive Producer: Tamara Sepper; Editorial Producer: David Kurlander; Audio Producer: Matthew Billy; Theme Music: Nat Weiner; CAFE Team: Adam Waller, David Tatasciore, Sam Ozer-Staton, Noa Azulai, and Jake Kaplan. Now & Then is presented by CAFE and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

REFERENCES & SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS

Dana Milbank, “Rudy Giuliani, drunk on conspiracy theories,” The Washington Post, 6/13/2022
Trish Bendix, “Late Night Blames It on the Alcohol,” New York Times, 6/14/2022
Cameron Joseph, “Trump’s Top Advisers Say Drunk Giuliani Urged Him to Declare Victory,” VICE, 6/13/2022

FRANKLIN PIERCE

Katherine Winton Evans, “Rebellious Spirits: Hard Liquor in Early America,” The Washington Post, 12/30/1979
Jacob Appel, “The Derailment of Franklin Pierce,” Hektoen International, 3/26/2021
Cromwell Whipple, “Mr. Whipple's address to the sober, moral and temperate men, of all parties!” Brown University, 10/22/1852
J. Childs, “Social Qualities of Our Candidate,” Library of Congress, 1852
“Franklin Pierce’s murky legacy as President,” National Constitution Center, 10/8/2021
“The Triumph and Tragedy of Franklin Pierce,” New England Historical Society, 2021
“President Franklin Pierce Warmly Endorses the Kansas-Nebraska Act as ‘Demonstrably Right and Patriotic,’” Shapell, 3/9/1854

WARREN HARDING

Warren Harding, “Address in Denver Colorado,” UCSB Presidency Project, 6/25/1923
Myra MacPherson, “'Princess' Alice Roosevelt Longworth,” The Washington Post, 2/21/1980
Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Crowded Hours, Archive.org, 1933
Aaron Killian, “Warren G. Harding: A Scandalous Presidency,” Historic America, 4/27/2021

THE RECKONING

Mark Kelly, “Ted Kennedy on the Rocks,” GQ, February 1st, 1991
Josh Sandburn, ““The Kennedy Machine Buried What Really Happened”: Revisiting Chappaquiddick, 50 Years Later,” Vanity Fair, 7/17/2019
Wayne King, “Wilbur Mills Offers Sober Testimony to an Alcoholic Past,” New York Times, 12/4/1978
Stephen Green and Margot Hornblower, “Mills Admits Being Present During Tidal Basin Scuffle,” The Washington Post, 10/11/1974
Julian Zelizer, “The sex scandal that reshaped Congress — and the warnings for today,” The Washington Post, 3/1/2021
Hugh Sidey, “In Defense of the Martini,” TIME, 10/24/1977
“Betty Ford Says That She Is Addicted to Alcohol,” The Washington Post, April 22nd, 1978
“Betty Ford on Admitting She was an Alcoholic,” ABC News, 1987
Elaine Sciolino, “Washington at Work; A Year After Rejection in Senate, Tower Replays Loss of Coveted Job,” New York Times, 4/5/1990
Jamie Dupree, “Flashbacks to John Tower as Senators review Kavanaugh FBI file,” Atlanta Journal Constitution, 10/3/2018

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Processing Roe’s Reversal in Real Time Jun 25, 2022

Show notes

Heather and Joanne react to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. How did we get here? What does the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs signal for the future of women’s reproductive rights and broader civil rights in America? What kind of unique perspective do women historians bring to understanding this moment?

Join CAFE Insider to listen to “Backstage,” where Heather and Joanne chat each week about the anecdotes and ideas that formed the episode. Head to: cafe.com/history

REFERENCES & SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS

“Now & Then: Abortion: Whose Choice?” CAFE.com, 9/14/2021

“The Dobbs v. Jackson Decision, Annotated,” New York Times, 6/24/2022
Justice Benjamin Robert Curtis, “Dissenting Opinion, Dred Scott v. Sanford,” Rutgers, 1857
Amy Howe, “In 6-3 ruling, court strikes down New York’s concealed-carry law,” SCOTUSBlog, 6/23/2022
“Anson Burlingame,” HarpWeek, 1998
Frida Ghitis, “Opinion: These two women reminded America why Tr… must be prosecuted,” CNN, 6/23/2022

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Encore: Investigating Democracy Jun 21, 2022

Show notes

On this encore episode of Now & Then, originally aired in June 2021 amid a Republican filibuster of an independent commission investigating January 6th, Heather and Joanne discuss the history of congressional commissions, from the investigation of the 1856 caning of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, to the 1871 Ku Klux Klan hearings, to 1954 back-and-forth between Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Army.

We’ll be back with a new episode next Tuesday!

Join CAFE Insider to listen to “Backstage,” where Heather and Joanne chat each week about the anecdotes and ideas that formed the episode. Head to: cafe.com/history

For references & supplemental materials, head to: cafe.com/now-and-then/encore-investigating-democracy

Now & Then is presented by CAFE and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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Nostalgia & Political Power Jun 14, 2022

Show notes

What are the political purposes of nostalgia? Why does the GOP idealize the American past? And what can this backward-looking perspective give or take away from our collective future?

On Now & Then, Heather and Joanne discuss the role of nostalgia in American political history, from Puritan Jeremiads, to the 1913 Gettysburg and Fort Wagner reunions, to the emergence in the 1970s of a cultural obsession with the 1950s.

Join CAFE Insider to listen to “Backstage,” where Heather and Joanne chat each week about the anecdotes and ideas that formed the episode. Head to: cafe.com/history

For references & supplemental materials, head to: cafe.com/now-and-then/nostalgia-political-power

Now & Then is presented by CAFE and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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The Mirage of Money (or, NFTs, WTF?) Jun 07, 2022

Show notes

Why have NFTs captured the American imagination? What can the recent instability in the NFT market tell us about the history of speculative bubbles?

Heather and Joanne put the NFT craze in context with other American financial booms & busts, from the Panic of 1792, to the 1890s Yukon Gold Rush, to the late 1990s dot-com bubble.

Join CAFE Insider to listen to “Backstage,” where Heather and Joanne chat each week about the anecdotes and ideas that formed the episode. Head to: cafe.com/history

For references & supplemental materials, head to: cafe.com/now-and-then/the-mirage-of-money-or-nfts-wtf

Now & Then is presented by CAFE and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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Free Speech: What IS Cancel Culture? May 31, 2022

Show notes

Why are Americans so preoccupied with so-called “cancel culture”? What are the lines between accountability and cancellation? And what drives citizens to stand against objectionable statements?

On this final episode in a three-part series on free speech, Heather and Joanne discuss the fall from grace of Loyalist politician Thomas Hutchinson during the Revolutionary period, the suppression of the German language during World War I, and the 2003 controversy over The Chicks’ public condemnation of the Iraq War.

Join CAFE Insider to listen to “Backstage,” where Heather and Joanne chat each week about the anecdotes and ideas that formed the episode. Head to: cafe.com/history

For references & supplemental materials, head to: cafe.com/now-and-then/free-speech-what-is-cancel-culture

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Free Speech: The Power of an Independent Press May 24, 2022

Show notes

What have been the gravest threats to a free press over the nation’s history? And how can the past tell us how to safeguard our access to information today?

On this second episode in a three-part series on free speech, Heather and Joanne discuss the 1837 murder of abolitionist journalist Elijah P. Lovejoy, the role of Joseph Pulitzer in the creation of the independent press, and the rise and fall of the Fairness Doctrine.

Join CAFE Insider to listen to “Backstage,” where Heather and Joanne chat each week about the anecdotes and ideas that formed the episode. Head to: cafe.com/history

For references & supplemental materials, head to: cafe.com/now-and-then/free-speech-the-power-of-an-independent-press

Now & Then is presented by CAFE and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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