PODCAST · history
History Author Show
by History Author Show
We've all been transported into the past by a special book, place or person. On the History Author Show, host Dean Karayanis and a team of correspondents bring you the people who build the time machines.
Episodes
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Irene Levy Baker — Cheers to McGillin’s: Philly’s Oldest Tavern
March 15, 2026 – We welcome a treasure from the City of Brotherly Love, Irene Levy Baker, back into the Wayback Machine. Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, she’s here to discuss “Cheers to McGillin’s: Philly’s Oldest Tavern.” She previously joined us to talk about her book, “100 Things To Do In...
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Jim Logan – Of Saints and Rivers
Feb 13, 2026 – We welcome award-winning author Jim Logan — a fourth-generation Oklahoman — aboard our time machine to discuss his debut novel, “Of Saints and Rivers.” The author, at 81, is as inspiring as his sweeping story that encompasses all the highs and lows of the period from the Gilded…
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Bill Bleyer — The Roosevelts in New York City
November 30, 2025 – Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and lifetime Long Islander, Bill Bleyer, joins us in the time machine to walk the streets of Gotham past with his book, “The Roosevelts in New York City.” Among his previous books is “Sagamore Hill: Theodore Roosevelt's Summer White House.”...
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Paul Kahan – Philadelphia: A Narrative History
July 4, 2025 - With the 249th birthday of America on July 4, 2025, and the 250th anniversary of Independence Day looming in 2025, the nation’s eyes are cast back to the place where America was born. Paul Kahan returns to tells us how that ground was sown and how the city has grown in…
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Thomas Hauser — My Mother and Me: A Memoir
May 11, 2024 - What happens when a celebrated author — Mohammed Ali’s official biographer, no less — turns his talents to putting his mother's century-long life down on paper? In this episode, our time machine welcomes aboard Thomas Hauser, author of “My Mother and Me: A Memoir.” Eleanor...
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Rob Hilliard — In Freedom's Shadow
April 1, 2024 - Where would an enslaved man who escaped the South find the courage to return to the Confederacy as a Union Spy? In this episode, we meet such a man thanks to Robert Hilliard, author of “In Freedom’s Shadow.” The novel is based on the heroic true story of John Scobell, an…
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Brent Butt – Huge: A Novel
October 11, 2023 - In this episode, our time machine welcomes aboard Brent Butt, who those of you in the Great White North know as the creator and star of the sitcom "Corner Gas," so beloved by Canadians that it has spawned an animated version and a movie. He's also host of the Butt Pod…
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S.C. Gwynne – His Majesty's Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World's Largest Flying Machine
September 4, 2023 - How did airship R101 — embodying the British Empire’s global ambitions — die in fireball of dreams, romance, and hubris and turn to ashes in the pages of history? S.C. Gwynne brings us this story of reaching for the sky in “His Majesty's Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of...
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Jenni L. Walsh – The Call of the Wrens
July 30, 2023 - What did service in the World Wars mean to women who found new opportunities to enter the workforce and join the fight as never before? We’ll go on a fictional ride with one of those service members with today’s novelist, Jenni Walsh. Her novel is “The Call of the Wrens,” the...
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Jerry Izenberg — Baseball, Nazis & Nedick’s Hot Dogs: Growing up Jewish in the 1930s in Newark
June 17, 2023 - Reading about history is one thing, but what happens when a legendary sportswriter looks back nearly a century to recall his upbringing in Newark, New Jersey, during the trying decades of the ‘30s and ‘40s – as a Jewish kid, mind you — while Wall Street crashed and Hitler made war...
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Lindsay Berra – “It Ain’t Over,” the Yogi Berra Movie
May 11, 2023 - Who was the greatest major league baseball catcher of all time? If the name Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra doesn’t spring to mind, have I got the movie for you. It’s the story of a kid from St. Louis and D-Day veteran whose life story has the power to uplift not just fans, but…
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Lindsay M. Chervinsky – Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture
May 1, 2023 - When a president of the United States dies, what does how we memorialize his life and service say about the republic? Our time machine welcomes back Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky to give her insights as we discuss “Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture,”...
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Stephen F. Knott – Coming to Terms with John F. Kennedy
March 21, 2023 - How did a man who worked at the JFK Presidential Library grapple with the 35th president’s legacy over his own lifetime to deliver portrait of the real man behind the myths of Camelot? In this episode, our time machine welcomes back Stephen F. Knott, author of “Coming to…
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Mike Purdy – Presidential Friendships: How They Changed History
January 23, 2023 – How did the relationships of two pairs of U.S. presidents — Theodore Roosevelt with William Howard Taft and Franklin Delano Roosevelt with freshman Congressman Lyndon Baines Johnson — change the course of history, and the world we live in today?In this episode, presidential...
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Natasha Lance Rogoff – Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia
December 19, 2022 – How did Kermit the Frog, Big Bird, and the rest of the Sesame Street expand their neighborhood to Moscow after the collapse of the USSR? In this episode, we meet the woman who adapted a beloved American TV show for an audience newly freed from behind the Iron Curtain.TV…
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Mike Guardia – Hal Moore: A Soldier Once…And Always
November 21, 2022 – If you could ride along in a Humvee with one of the most admired American combat leaders of the last half century, what would you hope to learn? In this episode, our time machine welcomes back internationally acclaimed military historian and U.S. Army veteran Mike Guardia. We...
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The Legend of Lizzie Borden – History Author ShowTime Review (featuring Cara Robertson)
October 24, 2022 - Something special this week for the season of pumpkins, ghosts, and Candy Corn: A YouTube feature on what Hollywood gets right and wrong about yesterday called History Author Showtime. It’s a video breakdown of the 1975 movie, “The Legend of Lizzie Borden,” starring Elizabeth...
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Judith F. Brenner – The Moments Between Dreams: A Novel
October 10, 2022 - What if historical fiction could give someone the courage that saves their life? In this episode, Judith F. Brenner shares her debut novel The Moments Between Dreams, which has the power to do just that, as we mark Domestic Violence and Polio Awareness Months. The book has been...
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David Pietrusza – Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR's 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal
September 26, 2022 - How did Franklin Delano Roosevelt win reelection with 46 of the 48 states in 1936, despite America being in the throes of the Great Depression? In this episode, legendary historian David Pietrusza to discuss his new book, Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR's 1936 Landslide and…
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Anna J. Walner – Saltwater and Driftwood: A Historical Novel
September 3, 2022 - On the morning of September 8th, 1900, disaster struck the vibrant, prosperous island of Galveston, Texas, tearing out its heart. In this episode, our time machine travels back to the turn of the last century to meet sixteen-year-old Clara and the Gladys family, against the...
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Jeffrey Frank – The Trials of Harry S. Truman: The Extraordinary Presidency of An Ordinary Man
August 22, 2022 - What if you were a Midwestern haberdasher-turned-senator, who served just three months as vice president, before finding yourself thrust into the Big Chair, charged with winning World War II? In this episode, our time machine welcomes aboard journalist Jeffrey Frank who brings...
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Ray E. Boomhower – Richard Tregaskis: Reporting under Fire from Guadalcanal to Vietnam
August 8, 2022 - In the late summer of 1942, the First Marine Division sought to wrest Guadalcanal from the Japanese Empire. We’ll meet one of only two reporters on hand to record the carnage, as the spot in the Pacific earned its nickname, the Island of Death. In this episode, our time machine...
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Todd D. Snyder – Beatboxing: How Hip-Hop Changed the Fight Game
July 25, 2022 - How did the worlds of hip-hop and boxing unite, blending together music, race, sports, and politics? In this episode our time machine welcomes back Dr. Todd D. Snyder who brings us Beatboxing: How Hip-Hop Changed the Fight Game. We previously caught up to discuss his previous...
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S.W. O'Connell: The Patriot Spy – Book One of the Yankee Doodle Spy Series
July 2, 2022 - Who were the citizen spies who risked their lives to bring General George Washington the intelligence he needed to win the War for Independence? In this episode, we take a fictional trip back to the American Revolution, to meet the people who fought for liberty with their wits…
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James D. R. Philips — Two Revolutions and the Constitution: How the English and American Revolutions Produced the American Constitution
June 27, 2022 - How did revolutions in the two great English-speaking nations -- the United States and the United Kingdom -- give birth to the American Constitution, and what does its creation have to tell us about the challenges we face over 200 years since its ratification? In this episode…
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Yogi Berra Museum & Bob Feller Act of Valor Foundation – Sacrifice & Courage, A Tribute to D-Day
June 13, 2022 - Before he won ten World Series titles with the New York Yankees, Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra answered a higher team’s calling, to serve his country in World War Two -- a role in the Navy that ultimately led him to a rocket ship supporting the Normandy landings. For June 6…
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Candice Millard – River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile
May 16, 2022 - Today, mapping the source of the Nile River is as easy as a Google search, but the mystery intrigued humanity for centuries. In this episode, best-selling author Candice Millard introduces us to the men who won a race worthy of Indiana Jones in River of the Gods: Genius, Courage,...
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Sheila Myers – The Truth of Who You Are (a Novel)
May 2, 2022 - Imagine you're struggling to feed your family during the Great Depression, and you cause a tragic accident at work. Do you risk your precious job at a time of sky-high unemployment and breadlines, or let someone else take the fall for what you did wrong? We'll meet a young man who...
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Deborah Cohen – Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War
April 18, 2022 - If a group of World War Two-era journalists invited you out for drinks, ready to open up about their interviews with everyone from Gandhi and Neru to Mussolini and Hitler, what would say? Readers get that opportunity with Deborah Cohen who brings us Last Call at the Hotel...
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Meriel Schindler – The Lost Café Schindler: One Family, Two Wars, and the Search for Truth
April 4, 2022 - What would you do if your estranged father died, leaving behind piles of Nazi-era documents related to the fate of your family's café in the world wars? In this episode, our time machine travels back to the inter-war years, to meet a Jewish family rocked by the turmoil of...
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Mike Guardia – Skybreak: The 58th Fighter Squadron in Desert Storm
March 21, 2022 - Who were the young American pilots who launched their fighter jets into the wild blue yonder during the first Gulf Wear, aiming to pry tiny Kuwait from Saddam Hussein's fist? In this episode, we'll travel back to January 17, 1991, as Desert Shield transforms into Desert Storm...
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Eva Stachniak – The School of Mirrors
March 7, 2022 - Best-selling author Eva Stachniak joins us to discuss her latest novel, The School of Mirrors. It's a rich and enjoyable story, focusing not just on the ribald details, but on the relationship between a mother and her daughter, who succeeds despite the many obstacles to women at...
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Claude A. Clegg III – The Black President: Hope and Fury in the Age of Obama
February 21, 2022 - It was once an unattainable dream, kept out of reach by lynch mobs, police dogs and firehoses. But in 2008, Barack Obama fulfilled the promise of that all men are created equal. In this episode, we take a look back at the man who changed the face of the Oval Office forever,...
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Michael Patrick Cullinane – Remembering Theodore Roosevelt: Reminiscences of his Contemporaries
February 7, 2022 - Theodore Roosevelt's life is the stuff of myths and legends, a persona he carefully cultivated over his decades charging through public life. But what did those who shared his private moments think of the Rough Rider? We'll get freshly uncovered insights from those who knew...
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David O. Stewart's Latest Novel: The New Land – The Overstreet Saga (Book One)
January 24, 2022 - What happens when an acclaimed author on figures from George Washington and James Madison to Aaron Burr and Andrew Johnson, turns his historical searchlight inward to his own family's American story? David O. Stewart does just that in his novel The New Land, Book One of the...
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Ricky D. Phillips – Last Letters from Stanley: The Unpublished Argentine Battle for the Falklands
January 10, 2022 - Surrounded, low on supplies, and on the verge of surrender, the soldiers of Argentina -- many young, barely trained conscripts -- wrote home in the waning days of the Falkland War, telling tales of hardship that bore no resemblance to the propaganda woven by the military…
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James Golden – Rush on the Radio: A Tribute from His Sidekick for 30 Years
November 13, 2021 - How did a college dropout from Missouri, grow up to win five Marconi awards and rescue AM radio -- to have one U.S. president carry his bags into the Lincoln bedroom, and another award him the Medal of Freedom? It's the amazing life story of radio's greatest of all time…
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John U. Bacon – Let Them Lead: Unexpected Lessons in Leadership from America’s Worst High School Hockey Team
November 29, 2021 - How did a high school hockey team go from being the very worst in the country to the top 5%, and what lessons can we apply to our own lives from that historic turnaround? In this episode, our time machine steps onto the ice twenty years ago with the lowly Ann Arbor Huron…
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Gerald Posner – Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK
November 15, 2021 - On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Was it a lone gunman or something more sinister? In this episode, we debunk the conspiracy theories with renowned investigative journalist and attorney Gerald Posner, author of the Pulitzer...
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Simon Read – The Iron Sea: How the Allies Hunted and Destroyed Hitler's Warships
November 1, 2021 - Adolf Hitler infamously told his naval commander-in-chief, Admiral Karl Dönitz, "On land, I am a hero. At sea, I am a coward." But those battles on, under and over the Atlantic decided the fate of the world every bit as much as action in Europe and North Africa. In this...
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Thomas Balcerski – Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King
October 18, 2021 - America's only bachelor president has had whispers about his relationship with a certain vice president for almost two centuries. But were they more than friends, and why does the answer matter in 2021? Our time machine travels back to the pre-Civil War period, to delve into…
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Michael Patrick Cullinane – Theodore Roosevelt’s Ghost: The History and Memory of an American Icon
October 4, 2021 - Theodore Roosevelt is invoked in contemporary politics so often, it's easy to forget that he died in his bed 100 years ago. So who was the real flesh-and-blood man, and what would he think of his evolution into a mythical folk hero? Our time machine travels back, to meet the...
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Joel C. Rosenberg – Enemies and Allies: An Unforgettable Journey inside the Fast-Moving & Immensely Turbulent Modern Middle East
September 20, 2021 - In 2020, we saw one what was long called impossible: Peace deal after another between Arab states and Israel in the Abraham Accords. What do the leaders of these nations see for the future, and how can we foster it by better understanding the past? Joel C. Rosenberg has…
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Jessica DuLong – Saved at the Seawall: Stories from the September 11 Boat Lift
Sep 6, 2021 - Our time machine travels back to a bright morning that turned dark, when ships of all sizes answered cries for help to evacuate Lower Manhattan after terrorists flew planes into the Twin Towers. Our guide on this journey is Jessica DuLong who bring us, Saved at the Seawall: Stories...
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Mitchell James Kaplan – Rhapsody: A Novel
August 23, 2021 - Everyone has heard the timeless music of George Gershwin, but we may never have heard it in quite the same way without the love of Gershwin's life, Katharine Faulkner Swift, who he nicknamed "Kay." Mitchell James Kaplan brings us their Jazz Age romance in his novel, Rhapsody. In...
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Michael Burlingame – An American Marriage: The Untold Story of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd
August 9, 2021 - In this episode, we toss the keys to our time machine into the hands of Lincoln historian Jason Emerson, who I welcomed for Q&A about his book Mary Lincoln for the Ages and several other titles related to the 16th president and the First Lady. Jason's guest hosting our…
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Thomas J. Howley – Wolf of Clontarf: The Irish, the Vikings and the Foreigners of the World
July 26, 2021 – You may not have heard the name Wolf the Quarrelsome. But once you meet this bold, Irish warrior — and the woman who risked her life to build his spy ring — you’ll never look at Ireland quite the same way. In this episode, our way-back machine travels ten centuries into the past…
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Thomas J. Howley – Wolf of Clontarf: The Irish, the Vikings and the Foreigners of the World
July 26, 2021 - You may not have heard the name Wolf the Quarrelsome. But once you meet this bold, Irish warrior -- and the woman who risked her life to build his spy ring -- you'll never look at Ireland quite the same way. In this episode, our way-back machine travels ten centuries into the...
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Ellin Bessner – Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War II
July 12, 2021 - Imagine you're Jewish during the Second World War, but safely in bed an ocean away from Nazi Germany, secure in the vastness of Canada. Would you march into the heart of the Third Reich, risking your life to stare down Hitler's war machine, for a country that didn't consider you…
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Victoria Wilcox – The World of Doc Holliday: History and Historic Images
June 28, 2021 - We all know the name of John Henry “Doc” Holliday, but who was he in that lifetime beyond the fences of the O.K. Corral, standing guns drawn with Wyatt Earp? Our time machine travels back to meet this icon of the Old West, before and after his moment of destiny in Tombstone,...
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does History Author Show have?
History Author Show currently has 586 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is History Author Show about?
We've all been transported into the past by a special book, place or person. On the History Author Show, host Dean Karayanis and a team of correspondents bring you the people who build the time machines.
How often does History Author Show release new episodes?
History Author Show releases new episodes frequently with a large back catalog of 586 episodes. Check the episode list for recent publication dates.
Where can I listen to History Author Show?
You can listen to History Author Show on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts History Author Show?
History Author Show is created and hosted by History Author Show.
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