My History Can Beat Up Your Politics
Since 2006, this podcast has been using history to elevate today's political debates. "The perfect antidote to bloviating talking heads, My History is thoughtful, nuanced, and highly engaging." -Columbia Journalism Review
Episodes
December 15, 2025 • 58 mins
Valley Forge Myth and Reality - Interview with Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, Authors of Valley Forge
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December 11, 2025 • 55 mins
A Democratic President and a liberal Senator push a free-market reform in the late 1970s that affects us all today. We look at the story of the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. Among the topics - legroom politics, cold fried chicken, consumer rights, cargo politics, Carter's legislative ability or lack of it, champagne denial, mistreated pets, and the deregulator now wearing a robe at SCOTUS.
Sponsored by:
The University of Aber...
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December 10, 2025 • 14 mins
Stories of baseball, banking and love. More from our episode on airline deregulation. What was left on the legal pad and didn't make it into the episode.
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December 7, 2025 • 50 mins
Deeper dive on Ken Burns documentary and Franklin and Iroquois Confederacy debate. Plus: Iran Iraq war and midterms.
Sponsored by:
The University of Aberdeen:
https://on.abdn.ac.uk/online-history-courses/
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November 30, 2025 • 20 mins
No I don't think the Iroquois Confederacy influenced th Revolution much. (Nor do I think Burns says this). And I take a little issue with American Revolution as a Civil War theory. (If it was merely that, it would have been quickly settled).
Sponsored by:
The University of Aberdeen:
https://on.abdn.ac.uk/online-history-courses/
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November 29, 2025 • 24 mins
Did New Jersey Save the Revolutionary Cause? Maybe. Amid a sea of troubles, irregular units fight off the British and make their stay in New Jersey less than hospitable. A bit about George Washington's offensive campaign to be sure that the new nation would not be garrisoned. And it happened in New Jersey (we should be clear with a large contingent of soldiers from all across the Eastern Seaboard).
Sponsored by:
The Univers...
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November 26, 2025 • 41 mins
What was it like to be born in 1869?
A generation defined by a technology that shook off the yoke of their parent's Civil War and took on the world, and took over the country by the turn of the century. This cast, which was previously recorded. It is as he reveals, Bruce's own favorite cast that he recorded in the show's 12-year history. Music from Lee Rosevere and KieLoKaz
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November 17, 2025 • 32 mins
Well, the 1880's finally has some visual media coverage. That's the good news.
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November 16, 2025 • 6 mins
"The real cause of the damage was the dam failure" We took on this topic a few years ago. With anniversaries of Hurricane Katrina not that far, one might find some comparable items in these two events of history.
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November 15, 2025 • 31 mins
Recorded in 2013, about a time now more than a century and 12 years ago.
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November 10, 2025 • 54 mins
The Union threatened by legislative fiat, a Senator rose to reply to another. For Daniel Webster, it was a real comeback, What we might call a "zinger" today.
"Not Liberty First and Union Afterwards! ...but Liberty and Union now and Forever One and Inseparable,"
Though since it was a 19th century zinger, it took 4 hours to deliver the line. Still it would become some of the most famous oratory in Senate history.
When South Caro...
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November 3, 2025 • 86 mins
Push in the drawer of your CD-ROM and enjoy random stories of politics and culture from the 1990's. that did not get much notice since.
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November 2, 2025 • 53 mins
A look at the famous series of letters between Jefferson and Adams. Friends as young diplomats, they 'unfriended' and 'refriended' from the time of their Presidencies and politics to their old age.
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October 31, 2025 • 20 mins
Lyndon Johnson wouldn't have been familiar with a shutdown. Grant might have, but it didn't work out the way modern ones do during his time. No, all that we've been experiencing comes down to an obscure ruling from the 1970s, and quickly put in action in 1981. Most hoped it wouldn't be seen again.
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October 29, 2025 • 58 mins
In this very special episode we replay Bruce's appearance on Music Rewind Podcast (https://www.musicrewindpodcast.com/) to talk about Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska album. It is now the subject of a movie.
If you like to hear about albums both new and classic, and hear stories about music, listen to Steve's excellent podcast.
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October 27, 2025 • 48 mins
The very Republican and business-like history of American ranked choice voting and single transferable votes, first used in a major city in the 1920's may surprise some who (may) think it's a new idea.
Initially created to make a Good Government Charter system work, it was used in Cincinnati for 20 years, and was part of a set of changes that lives on today.
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October 16, 2025 • 65 mins
As a blackout, serial killer and budget crisis hits New York City, an election is held. 2 major figures run, but it's the newcomers who steal the show. A governor tries to extract revenge on a mayor. A newspaper baron goes full-in. And a lingering mystery of dubious importance is created.
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October 13, 2025 • 41 mins
A few good yarns about the Garden State and politics. Does the state always vote against the party in the White House? No. Not when a candidate hustles to buck the Trenton Trend. But it does have a contrarian streak.
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October 9, 2025 • 37 mins
It is a rarely used tactic, but when it works, it can do big things, like moving a bill through Congress even if the Speaker doesn't support it. From civil rights to gun show loopholes, from budget balancing to debt ceilings, we look at the Discharge Petition. And why it's become important for GOP conservatives in the 90's and for Democrats today.
We are part of Airwave Media Network (www.airwavemedia.com)
Music by Lee Rosevere and...
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October 1, 2025 • 97 mins
The untold story of the 21st President. Music by Lee Rosevere, and others.
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