Military Historians are People, Too!

Today's guest has an inspiring story - Jason Higgins comes from working-class roots in Southeastern Arkansas, where he took a chance on going to college, then hit his stride through hard work, raising a family, and discovering a passion for telling people's stories. From the University of Arkansas-Montecello, where he earned a BA in English AND History, Jason headed to Stillwater, Oklahoma, to take an MA in English at Oklah...

Today's guest is our first from France, but who went to graduate school and teaches here in the US! Marjorie Galleli is an assistant professor of history at Kansas State University in Little Apple, Manhattan, Kansas. Marjorie has a fascinating story of "coming to America" that began after visiting Boston as a kid. It's a long way from Alsaac to Kansas, but she's embraced the journey. Join us for a really interesting chat with Marjo...

Our guest today is former professional football player turned defense intellectual Mike Pavelec. Mike is the Director of the US Space Force Schriever Scholars Program at the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies. A historian of airpower and the history of technology, Mike has come a long way from his days as an offensive lineman with the Miami Dolphins, the Hamilton Tiger Cats, and the Calgary Stampeder...

Today's guest is Army veteran and historian of the Cold War-era Army Rob Williams. At Ft. Leavenworth, Rob writes for Army University Press and in his spare time writes on Army culture, particularly airborne culture. His first book, Airborne Mafia: The Paratroopers Who Shaped America's Cold War Army, will be published by Cornell University Press in March 2025. After seventeen years in the Army, Rob did a BA in history at UN...

Today's guest is the brilliant Jadwiga Biskupska, an Associate Professor of History at Sam Houston State University. A specialist in the war experience of Central Europe, particularly during World War II, Jadzia is the author of Survivors: A Cultural History of Warsaw under Nazi Occupation (Cambridge), among other works. She is the co-director of the Second World War Research Group-North America and will be the 2025-2026 Genera...

Today's guest became a free-lance battlefield tour guide after a career in the Royal Corps of Signals that included tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now a captain in the Army Reserve, Susie Cooper took a love of military history and battlefield staff rides to a post-military career taking everyone from school children to military officers on battlefield tours in the UK and Europe. She does tours for CGT Battlefield Tours, Anglia Tour...

Today's guest is First World War and German historian Tim Grady of Chester University. Tim has done ground-breaking work on Jewish German soldiers in the First World War and is now looking at the care and burial of POW dead. His books include A Deadly Legacy: German Jews and the Great War (Yale), and his forthcoming Burying the Enemy: The Story of Those Who Cared for the Dead from the Two World Wars (also from Yale) promises to...

Today's guest is the enthusiastic and fun Heather M. Haley of the US Naval History and Heritage Command. A PhD from Auburn, Heather is a scholar of LGBTQ+ in the American military. In addition to several publications with the Naval History and Heritage Command, Heather is the author of Queer in the Cold War: The Civil-Military Battle over the Lavender Scare, which is forthcoming from Cornel University Press. If you've been to recen...

Our guest today leads the double life of being an academic at Trinity College, Dublin, by day and doing stand-up comedy by night! Andrew Dorman is a Research and Policy Officer with TCD's Centre for Economics, Policy, and History, and recently earned his PhD in history from Dublin City University. A specialist on soldiering in 18th century Ireland, Andrew has published with the British Journal of Military History and the Journal of...

Our guest today is the guy who led the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection team that created the ubiquitous yellow Energy Guide labels on your appliances. Oh yeah, he's also an award-winning historian of the American Civil War. Hampton Newsome recently retired from a long career as an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Hampton did his undergraduate degree at Duk...

Today's guest is a Canadian! Jason Ridler is a Course Developer and Lecturer with Advanced Academic Programs at Johns Hopkins University, where he designs and teaches remote courses for the Johns Hopkins Globa Secutires and Master of Liberal Arts programs. Jay earned his PhD in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada and has published in Diplomacy and Statecraft, Small Wars and Insurgencies, and Defense and Security A...

Today's guest is the thoroughly amazing Mary Elizabeth Walters of the USAF Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell AFB in Alabama. A native of Cheraw, South Carolina, Mary Elizabeth fell in love with history doing oral histories with D-Day Pathfinders for National History Day, but she had no idea that would lead to living in Albania, studying refugee crises from Kosovo and Afghanistan, and now teaching theory of war and strategy t...

We've been wanting to do this for a while now, as we're always pushing our BBQ chops on you, dear loyal listeners, so we talked with a legit pitmaster - Mary Beth Brown of Dolan's BBQ down the street from Georgia Southern University here in Statesboro, Georgia. Along with her sister Lazar Brown Oglesby, Mary Beth is the owner and pitmaster of one of the best BBQ places in Southeast Georgia. A Georgia Southern University graduate ex...

Today's guest is one of the nicest and brightest new scholars in the military history community - Cameron Zinsou of the US Army Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. A native of Ft. Worth, Texas, Cameron thrived at North Texas as an undergraduate and earned his PhD at Mississippi State University. He's a World War II guy, focusing on French meanings of citizenship during the conflict. There's a lot in this o...

Today, we go Down Under to chat with the pleasant, fun, and wicked-smart Michael Finch. Mike is a Senior Lecturer in the History of War and Strategy at the Centre for Future Defence and National Security at Deakin University. A graduate of Pembroke College, Oxford University, Mike has written extensively on French colonial violence and the First World War and just published a thoughtful history of the seminal Makers of Modern Strat...

Today's guest took a non-traditional path to becoming a historian, working in the private sector while gradually becoming a researcher and writer on the Vietnam War. A native of Pennsylvania, Jay Veith served in the post-Vietnam US Army, worked in management for Proquest and other corporations, and earned a PhD at Australia's Monash University (at the encouragement of the late Jeffrey Grey) later in life. Jay's books include Black ...

Today's guest is the host of the Mother of Tanks/Why We Fight podcast - Sasha Maggio! Sasha's background is actually in intelligence studies and psychology, but she's had an interest in military history and World War II for many years. She's held various contractor jobs with the US Army and the Department of Defense, including the Army Combined Arms Center at Ft. Leavenworth. She is currently a unit deployment manag...

Today's guest is Mark Folse - BBQ intellectual, shameless Alabama fan, and, by the way, historian of manhood and the Marine Corps, as well as the US Army in Afghanistan. A native of the Deep South, Mark enlisted in the Marine Corps after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and served in Afghanistan and Iraq. After four years in the Marines, Mark returned to school, earning his BA, MA, and PhD at the University of Alabama, where ...

We kick off Season 5 with fellow directional-state utlitiy infielder Devlin Scofield of Northwest Missouri State University. Devlin is a historian of Germany and the First World War, and also researches on Alsatian veterans and nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries. Born in New York but raised in Livingston, Montana, Devlin earned his PhD at Michigan State University. So, we'll talk "Yellowstone" and Mark Dantoni...