BackStory

BackStory

BackStory is a weekly public podcast hosted by U.S. historians Ed Ayers, Brian Balogh, Nathan Connolly and Joanne Freeman. We're based in Charlottesville, Va. at Virginia Humanities. There’s the history you had to learn, and the history you want to learn - that’s where BackStory comes in. Each week BackStory takes a topic that people are talking about and explores it through the lens of American history. Through stories, interviews, and conversations with our listeners, BackStory makes history engaging and fun.

Episodes

Anatomy of a Geo-Block

August 14, 2025 • 1 min

In a world where episode content shouldn't be heard everywhere, only one thing stands between that and total disaster...

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All About Geo-Fencing

August 13, 2025 • 1 min

This episode is all about the fascinating world of geo-fencing. This practice allows content distributors to either allow or prevent digital consumers from accessing their content, based on their location in the world.

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Amazing video episode

June 18, 2025 • 1 min

Amazing video episode

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Test Audio Episode

June 18, 2025 • 58 mins

Test Audio Episode

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Test Episode

October 5, 2023 • 1 min

test episode

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Test Episode

October 4, 2023 • 1 min

Test

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331: The End of the Road: BackStory and the History of Finales in America

July 3, 2020 • 79 mins
On this final episode of BackStory, Nathan, Brian, Joanne and Ed explore different kinds of finales throughout American history. They also consider what it’s like being a part of their own finale and how finales can sometimes lead to new beginnings. 

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Teaser: BackStory and the History of Finales in America

June 30, 2020 • 6 mins
Coach Tony Bennett knows a thing or two about big finales. He’s the head coach of the men’s basketball team at the University of Virginia. This is a clip from Brian's conversation with Coach Bennett about the power of sports and how you have to be able to accept the outcome of a big game, whether it’s a buzzer-beater win or a heartbreaking loss. 

The full episode is coming to you this Friday, July 3. 

...
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330: Best of BackStory: The Time the People Picked

June 26, 2020 • 51 mins
As BackStory nears the end of its production, we’ve asked our listeners to call in with moments from the show’s history and compile their very own “Best of BackStory.”

We got some great responses covering a range of topics, each of them meaningful to the present moment in their own way.

So in this best of BackStory, we present three of our listener’s favorite interviews f...
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Introducing: Seizing Freedom

June 24, 2020 • 18 mins
Coming Feb 2021…

In most history classes, students learn that the Emancipation Proclamation and Union victories “freed the slaves.” But ending slavery in America required much more than battlefield victories and official declarations. Black people battled for their own freedom, taking incredible risks for a country that had actively denied their right to it. And after the Civil War, they made freedo...
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329: Great, Small and Other Expectations: Charles Dickens and His History with America

June 19, 2020 • 39 mins
Charles Dickens died 150 years ago this month. A famous chronicler and critic of English industrial capitalism, Dickens was also immensely popular in the United States. But in an age of widespread debate about slave versus wage labor, his writings meant different things to different readers. 

Music: 

Bright White by Podington Bear
Outmoded Waltz by Podington ...
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328: The Clue of the Blue Bottle from "The Last Archive"

June 12, 2020 • 57 mins
The Last Archive is a show from Pushkin Industries about the history of truth, and the historical context for our current fake news, post-truth moment.

It’s a show about how we know what we know, and why it seems, these days, as if we don’t know anything at all anymore. The show is driven by host Jill Lepore’s work as a historian, uncovering the secrets of the past the way a detective might.

On this episode...
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327: Another Burden to Bear: A History of Racial Health Disparities in America

June 5, 2020 • 56 mins
The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted  communities of color. According to the CDC, 33% of people who’ve been hospitalized due to the virus have been African-American, despite making up only 18% of the population. The ongoing crisis is a reminder of the racial health disparities that have plagued the United States throughout its history. So on this episode of BackStory, Joanne and Brian learn about how different...
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326: Mystery, Murder, and Mayhem: A History of True Crime in America

May 29, 2020 • 66 mins
For the last decade or so, true crime has been everywhere -- Netflix shows like Making a Murderer and podcast series like Serial. All of them are a testament to the fact that for some strange reason, so many of us love stories about murder. 

But this magnetism towards the morbid is far from new. Over the years, Americans have found fascination, repulsion and sometimes even comfort in true crime stor...
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325: American Empire: From Scene on Radio

May 22, 2020 • 75 mins
“America” and “empire.” Do those words go together? If so, what kind of imperialism does the U.S. practice, and how has American empire changed over time?
 
By host and producer John Biewen, with series collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews with Nikhil Singh and Daniel Immerwahr.
 
The series editor is Loretta Williams. Music by Algiers, John Erik Kaada, Eric Neveux, and Lucas...
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324: Best of BackStory: The Time Joanne Freeman Went to Congress

May 15, 2020 • 43 mins
As BackStory moves towards the end of its production, we’ve asked our hosts to select memorable moments from the show that we’re publishing as episodes once per month. 

Joanne Freeman joined BackStory in 2017, and has since had hundreds of conversations on a huge variety of topics. But during this time, a few of these interviews surprised and moved her as a historian, and as a woman in unexpected wa...
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276: Red in the Stars and Stripes?: A History of Socialism in America

May 8, 2020 • 58 mins
With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and record levels of unemployment, the conversation around socialism in the U.S. has resurfaced in surprising ways. So we thought we'd revisit this episode from 2019. 

Image: The cover art for the album "Power to the Working Class: Revolutionary songs written & sung by workers & students in struggle." Source: Library of Congress

BackStory is funded in part...
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323: Zooming Ahead: How Virtual Learning is Shaping the College Classroom

May 1, 2020 • 20 mins
Today, the word zoom has become synonymous with an application millions of people are using to learn, teach and work. COVID-19 has impacted every aspect of our lives, including how we teach and how we learn. So what does this all mean for the future of classroom learning? And where does it fit into the broader history of higher education?  

On this episode of BackStory, Brian dives into the topic of teaching a...
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322: 1980s Environmentalism and How the Reagan-Era Shaped the Natural World

April 24, 2020 • 59 mins
This week, environmentalism was in the spotlight, thanks to the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Over the decades, environmentalism has adapted to new challenges, like increasing levels of greenhouse gases and a swinging pendulum when it comes to federal policy. But the 1980s exemplified a notable and often consequential shift in how people - from protestors to the president - approached environmental issues. So on this episode ...
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321: Give Us the Ballot: From LBJ and the Great Society

April 17, 2020 • 50 mins
By his own account, and by many others as well, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was Lyndon Johnson’s greatest achievement – the jewel in the crown of the Great Society, and widely considered the most effective piece of civil rights legislation in American history.

This episode, "Give Us the Ballot," will focus on the extraordinarily eventful eight-month period — January to August 1965 — when the battle for ...
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