In our first podcast of the season, Stan talks to Sarah Milov of the University of Virginia about her recent book The Cigarette: A Political History, and about the fascinating history of smoking and anti-smoking in America–including a snippet of the creepy Johnny Smoke PSA from the late ’60s. We also check out “This Week in History,” from Jimmy Carter to Janis Joplin to Tomochichi, “Obituaries You Were Too Busy to Notice,” and this week’s edition of “People You Thought Were Dead but are Still Living.”
Category Archives: Politics
The Great Chief Justice: The Supreme Court Pick That Really Changed History
In the midst of the current Supreme Court nominee controversy, Dr. Deaton looks at another nomination to the Supreme Court that was made and confirmed after the incumbent president had lost the election–and it turned out to be one of the most momentous Supreme Court appointments in American history.
Dispatches From Off the Deaton Path: The 19th Amendment: Women’s Suffrage at 100
2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment, which extended to women the right to vote. In this Dispatch, Dr. Deaton examines the history of the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the long, difficult struggle to win the vote–and how the fight continued for some Americans long after 1920.
Dispatches From Off the Deaton Path: Button Gwinnett
This Dispatch looks at the life, death, and historical after-life of this controversial Georgia figure and Declaration of Independence signer, who fought Georgia’s most famous duel 243 years ago this week.
Dispatches From Off the Deaton Path: Franklin D. Roosevelt
With this Sunday marking the 75th anniversary of FDR’s death, Dr. Deaton looks back at our 32nd president’s leadership during another national crisis, the Great Depression–and how the New Deal changed the way every president since FDR has responded to a crisis.