Revised Introduction for New and Longstanding Listeners

Theodor de Bry - The French land at the "promontory of Florida"

After the experience of 15 months, 66 substantive episodes, and more than 180,000 aggregate downloads/listens, I thought it would be useful to reintroduce the podcast. I labored over the original introduction and still stand by it, and yet it does not really reflect the tone of the podcast as it has turned out. This episode is therefore a new introduction for both new and longstanding subscribers. It includes a description of the podcast as it has actually evolved, and also my thoughts on the need for history to be fun and interesting, the avoidance of “presentism,” and the importance of attempting to keep politics out of the teaching and telling of history. And there’s an awesome clip from “Inherit the Wind.”

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2 comments
  • Great re-intro Jack!
    Glad to hear your lack of professionalism hasn’t waned one iota.
    PS (1); I’m a bit surprised you don’t just bullet point and then free-wheel-dictate the script prior to editing and “performing” the podcast, rather than typing it up, in order to speed the process up.
    PS (2); So agree with your disdain for presentism… except that I think there are certain (albeit few) things (“facts” for one, even morality to some extent as another) that are and remain true regardless of perspective – you did go on to say something similar near the end.

  • Your labor of love is one of the true highlights of my week, or however often you choose to post. A thoroughly enjoyable listen every time. Keep up the great work.

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