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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.
The Best of BackStory
- Best of BackStory: The Time Peter Onuf Declared Independence
- Best of BackStory: The Time Ed Ayers Marched Into Richmond
- Best of BackStory: The Time Brian Balogh Went to a Monastery
- Best of BackStory: The Time Nathan Connolly Had A Close Encounter
BackStory's History of Protest Playlist
- A History of Stonewall, the Riot That Started the LGBTQ Revolution
- Charlottesville: Our Town, Our Country
- Standing Rock and the History of Indigenous Resistance in the United States
- Serve & Protect? A History of the Police
BackStory's Black History Month 2020 Playlist
- A History of Stonewall, the Riot That Started the LGBTQ Revolution
- How Reconstruction Transformed the Constitution: A Feature Conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning Historian Eric Foner
- Close Encounters: UFOs in American History
- Teen Activists: A History of Youth Politics and Protest
BackStory's 13th Amendment Playlist
- A More Perfect Union? The Reconstruction Era
- How Reconstruction Transformed the Constitution: A Feature Conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning Historian Eric Foner
- Too Good To Be True?: Myths in American History
- The Civil War in the 21st Century: A New Museum Marks an Old Conflict
BackStory's Top 10 Episodes of 2019 (So Far)
- Death on the Assembly Line: Industrial Tragedies in American History
- Alternative Facts, Falsehoods and Delusions: The Lies We've Told Ourselves and Each Other in American History
- Red in the Stars and Stripes?: A History of Socialism in America
- Burnt Corks & Cakewalks: The Toxic Legacy of Blackface in American History