PODCAST · history
The History-Politics Podcast: Putting the Past to Work
by UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy
"The History-Politics Podcast: Putting the Past to Work" connects past to present, using historical analysis and context to help guide us through modern issues and policy decisions. Then & Now is brought to you by the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. This podcast is produced by David Myers and Roselyn Campbell, and features original music by Daniel Raijman.
Episodes
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Why History Matters: Immigration
In this special episode, we share a recording of a UCLA event titled Why History Matters: Immigration, sponsored by the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Department of History as well as the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Moderated by Dean of the UCLA Division of Social Sciences, Abel...
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Sorcery and the Legacies of Colonialism in the Dominican Republic
Assistant Director of the LCHP Rose Campbell welcomes UCLA historian Robin Lauren Derby to discuss her new book Bêtes Noires: Sorcery as History in the Haitian-Dominican Borderlands. Robin explores how beliefs surrounding the bacá, spirits that appear as animals, preserve cultural memories of...
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Trump, Populism, and the End of the Neoliberal Order
Guest host and former LCHP Postdoctoral Associate Ben Zdencanovic welcomes Cambridge historian Gary Gerstle to discuss whether Trump and MAGAism represent the end of the neoliberal order. Gary traces American political systems starting with the transition from the New Deal order, which emphasized...
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Equality, Law, and the Trans Community
In this episode, host Rose Campbell is joined by Cary Franklin to discuss nationwide efforts to erode the rights of transgender people. While the recent Supreme Court decisions allowing states to ban transgender girls from participating in sports at publicly funded schools have garnered…
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The 2026 Primaries and California’s Future
The Los Angeles primary elections, held June 2, 2026, were the source of great debate and not a few surprises. In this episode, David Myers, in his farewell episode as founding host of The History-Policy Podcast, interviews longtime LA public official and frequent LCHP collaborator Zev…
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The Future of History: Have We Reached the End of History Again?
This special episode of LCHP’s History-Politics Podcast features a recording of an event titled “The Future of History: Have We Reached the End of History Again?” This event was the first in a multi-part series by the Luskin Public History Program in conjunction with the UCLA Luskin Center for...
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Orbán, Trump, and the Autocrat's Playbook
In April 2026, the world was shocked by when Péter Magyar handily defeated long-time Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán. In this episode, LCHP Assistant Director Rose Campbell speaks with legal scholar Kim Lane Scheppele about this unexpected upset after sixteen years of Orbán's autocratic regime, and...
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Religion, Suffrage, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Host David Myers welcomes historian Ellen DuBois to discuss her recently published book about the life, legacy, and contradictions of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Ellen emphasizes Stanton’s central role in launching the women’s suffrage movement alongside Susan B. Anthony and her enduring relevance to...
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Antisemitism and the Law in Trump 2.0: A Perspective from UPenn
In this week’s episode, host David Myers leads a discussion with Amanda Shanor, Sigal Ben-Porath, and Serena Mayeri about the legal and historical implications of the Trump administration’s request for lists of Jewish students, faculty, and organizations at the University of Pennsylvania. The...
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Borders in Times of Instability
In this special episode of The History-Politics Podcast, we share a recording of LCHP’s recent event, “Borders in Times of Instability: A Cross-Disciplinary Conversation with Luwei Ying and Hiroshi Motomura.” This conversation is a continuation of our previous episode where political scientist...
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Historical Border Instability and Democratic Backlash
In this episode of the History-Politics Podcast, host David Myers speaks with UCLA political scientist Luwei Ying about her research linking historical border instability to the contemporary rise of populist politics. Drawing on her work as a Luskin Center for History and Policy grantee and the...
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Immigration Enforcement and Latine/x Families
In this episode, host Rose Campbell speaks with UCLA social welfare scholar Dr. Tatiana Londoño about the psychological and social toll of immigration enforcement on Latine/x immigrant communities in the United States. Drawing on both her personal experience as a Colombian immigrant and her years...
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Native Agency, NAGPRA, and Museums
In this episode, Rose Campbell, Assistant Director of the Luskin Center for History and Policy, welcomes guests Stephen Aron and Joe Horse Capture of the Autry Museum of the American West to discuss the historical power imbalance between Native American tribes and museums. Historically, museums...
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The Law and Politics of the Federal Assault on Higher Education: The Pasts and Futures of Higher Education
Host David Myers welcomes legal scholar Joseph Fishkin to discuss the present and future of higher education amid growing federal pressure on universities. Fishkin’s work spans constitutional law, inequality, and equal opportunity. Fishkin explains that law and politics are inseparable: while law...
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Higher Education in Peril: The Pasts and Futures of Higher Education
As part of our series devoted to the pasts and futures of higher education in the United States, this conversation, hosted by LCHP Director David Myers, features Princeton sociologist Kim Lane Scheppele alongside legal scholars Ariela Gross from UCLA and Nomi Stolzenberg from USC to discuss an...
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Why Does US-Iran Hostility Persist?
In this episode of The History-Politics Podcast: Putting the Past to Work, host David Myers speaks with Dalia Dassa Kaye on why U.S.–Iran relations constitute the longest-running hostility in American foreign policy. Dalia argues that while Iranian actions and the regime’s post-1979 anti-American...
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The Living Legacy of the Grateful Dead
In this episode, host David Myers interviews Jim Newton, renowned political journalist and UCLA lecturer, on his recent book on musician Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, the iconic American band. Newton reflects on his personal and professional pathway to writing about the Dead. He traces his...
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The Future of History Part 2: Special Episode
In the second part of then & now’s special presentation of the panels from the “Future of History” conference, David Myers, host of then & now, moderates a conversation on the precarious state of history, democracy, and cultural institutions in the United States. The panelists include Lonnie G....
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The Future of History Part 1: Special Episode
This episode of then & now features a panel from the “Future of History” conference moderated by UCLA Professor Brenda Stevenson, an award-winning historian of race, gender, slavery, and community. She introduces three UCLA historians whose work spans the U.S. and the globe: Professor Kelly Lytle...
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Plenary Address from the Urban History Association: Special Episode
In this week’s episode of then & now, David Myers moderates a panel discussion from the recent Urban History Association meeting in Los Angeles. The panel discussed two important questions: What is distinctive about Los Angeles as an urban experience and experiment? And what does L.A. tell us or...
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Important Update for Then & Now
We are redesigning Then & Now to better reach you, our listeners! Please fill out this survey before October 15, 2025, to let us know how we can improve, and be entered to win a FREE copy of Dr. Myers' book The Stakes of History. We look forward to your feedback! Survey link:...
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Race, Industry, and Resistance: A Conversation with Jennifer Klein.
In this week’s episode of then & now, guest host Dr. Ben Zdencanovic is joined by Dr. Jennifer Klein, the Bradford Durfee Professor of History at Yale University, to explore Cancer Alley, the stretch of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana. Spanning roughly one...
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The Challenge to University Autonomy in an Illiberal Age: A Conversation with David N. Myers and Ben Zdencanovic.
In this week’s episode of then & now, LCHP Director Professor David N. Myers is joined by Dr. Ben Zdencanovic to discuss their collaborative work on a new LCHP report, The Challenge to University Autonomy in an Illiberal Age: Historical and Comparative Perspectives. Compiled over the past year as...
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The Rise of the Religious Right in U.S. Politics: A Conversation with Neil J. Young.
In this week’s episode of then & now, LCHP Assistant Director Dr. Rose Campbell is joined by historian Dr. Neil J. Young to examine the evolution and ongoing influence of conservative Christian family values in contemporary U.S. political discourse. Neil offers a nuanced account of how ideals…
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Defunding Big Bird: The Politics and History of Public Broadcasting. A Conversation with Josh Shepperd.
In this episode of then & now, guest host Dr. Ben Zdencanovic welcomes Professor Josh Shepperd, Associate Professor of Media Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and Director of the Library of Congress Radio Preservation Task Force (RPTF). Josh, acclaimed author of Shadow of the New…
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A Conversation with Pulitzer Prize Winner Benjamin Nathans: The Lives and Afterlives of the Soviet Dissident Movement.
In this week’s episode of then & now, we’re joined by Benjamin Nathans, Alan Charles Kors Endowed Term Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, to talk about his recent book, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement (Princeton University...
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The Sociolinguistics of Exclusion: Affirmative Action, DEI, and the Struggle for Belonging. A Conversation with Jamaal Muwwakkil.
In this episode of then & now, we are joined by Dr. Jamaal Muwwakkil, Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA and incoming Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington, to discuss the recent rollback of affirmative action and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)...
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Coming Out Republican: The Gay Right and the Politics of Belonging. A Conversation with Neil J. Young.
In this week’s episode of then & now, LCHP Assistant Director Dr. Rose Campbell is joined by Dr. Neil J. Young—historian, podcaster, and author of Coming Out Republican (The University of Chicago Press, 2024), which traces the history of conservative and libertarian gay figures in United States...
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Mexico's Dirty War and the Struggle for Accountability: A Conversation with Carlos Pérez Ricart.
In this week’s episode of then & now, guest host Professor Fernando Pérez-Montesinos is joined by Carlos Pérez Ricart, Assistant Professor in International Relations at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE) in Mexico City, to discuss Mexico’s Dirty War—an internal conflict from the...
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Why History Matters: L.A. Wildfires Past, Present, and Future
In this week’s episode of then & now, we present a recording of a recent panel discussion focusing on L.A. wildfires past, present, and future. This program is part of the “Why History Matters” series presented by the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Department of History—a series dedicated to the...
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Are There Limits to Presidential Power? A Conversation about the Unitary Executive Theory with John Mikhail.
In this week’s episode of then & now, we are joined by John Mikhail, Carroll Professor of Jurisprudence at Georgetown University Law Center, for a deep dive into the controversial theory of the unitary executive. Rooted in the Constitution’s Vesting Clause, this theory asserts that the president...
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Donald Trump’s Uses (and Abuses) of History: A Conversation with Bruce Schulman.
This week’s episode of then & now is part of an occasional series exploring the past, present, and future of U.S. foreign policy and the U.S.-led international order. Guest host Dr. Ben Zdencanovic is joined by Bruce Schulman, Professor of History at Boston University, to discuss the Trump...
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Preservation amidst Devastation: Salvaging Historic Tiles after the Los Angeles Wildfires. A Conversation with Conservator Amy Green.
This week’s episode of then & now is part of a series co-sponsored by the L.A. History Collaborative, in which we explore the impact of the catastrophic wildfires that affected Los Angeles in early 2025. We are joined by Amy Green, Principal of Silverlake Conservation and one of Los Angeles’ most...
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Why History Matters in an Age of Polycrisis
In this week’s episode of then & now, we present a recording of a recent event co-sponsored by the Wende Museum and the Luskin Center for History and Policy. This event launched the Meyer and Renee Luskin Public History Program at the Wende Museum, a series made possible through the extraordinary...
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Indigenous Fire Stewardship and Ecological Resilience: A Conversation with Daisy Ocampo Diaz.
This week’s episode of then & now is part of a series co-sponsored by the L.A. History Collaborative, in which we examine the effects of the devastating Los Angeles Wildfires in early 2025. Dr. Daisy Ocampo Diaz joins LCHP Assistant Director Dr. Rose Campbell to discuss the Fowler Museum’s...
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Reconstructing German-Jewish Cultural Heritage after the Los Angeles Wildfires: A Conversation with E. Randol Schoenberg.
This week’s episode of then & now is part of a series examining the effects of one of the most powerful and destructive natural disasters in U.S. history: the Los Angeles Wildfires. Co-sponsored by the L.A. History Collaborative— a new consortium of cultural institutions and historians committed…
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Trump 2.0 and the Implications for U.S. Foreign Policy: A Conversation with Stephen Wertheim.
This week’s episode of then & now is part of an occasional series exploring the past, present, and future of U.S. foreign policy and the U.S.-led international order with guest host Dr. Ben Zdencanovic. Joined by Dr. Stephen Wertheim, Senior Fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the…
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Europe Without Borders: The Rise and Partial Fall of the Schengen Zone. A Conversation with Isaac Stanley-Becker.
In this week’s episode of then & now, we are joined by Dr. Isaac Stanley-Becker, a reporter on intelligence and national security issues for The Washington Post, to examine the rise and partial fall of the Schengen Zone amid ongoing and polarizing debates regarding immigration policy. Through the...
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The Los Angeles Wildfires in the Age of the Pyrocene: A Conversation with Fire Scholar Stephen Pyne.
This week’s episode of then & now is the first in a series examining one of the most powerful and destructive natural disasters in U.S. history, the Los Angeles wildfires. Joined by Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University Stephen Pyne, one of the country’s leading thinkers about fire, we...
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Domestic Violence, Title IX, and the Stories We Don’t Tell: A Conversation with Joy Neumeyer
**Content Warning: This episode includes discussion of sexual and domestic violence. In this week’s episode of then & now, guest host Professor Jared McBride is joined by Dr. Joy Neumeyer to discuss her recent book, A Survivor’s Education. In the book, as well as this episode, Joy interweaves her...
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The Epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women: A Conversation with Shannon Speed
**Content Warning: This episode includes discussion of sexual and domestic violence. In this week’s episode of then & now, LCHP Assistant Director Dr. Rose Campbell is joined by Dr. Shannon Speed to discuss systemic violence against Indigenous women. According to a 2016 study, Indigenous women…
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Continuity and Change: The Fairfax District and What it Tells us about LA. A Conversation with Stephanie Zager, Michaela Esposito, and Ella Kitt
In this week’s episode of then & now, UCLA undergraduates Stephanie Zager, Michaela Esposito, and Ella Kitt join us to discuss the results of their LCHP report on the evolution of the Fairfax District in Los Angeles. The three researchers chronicle the district's rise and decline against the...
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Unpacking the 2024 Election: Trendlines and Developments in California Politics. A Conversation with Raphael Sonenshein and Zev Yaroslavsky
This week’s episode of then & now is the second in a series exploring the historical backdrop to and consequences of the 2024 election. Joining us are Raphael Sonenshein, a nationally recognized expert on racial and ethnic politics in California and Los Angeles, and Zev Yaroslavsky, one of Los...
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Unpacking the 2024 Election: Trends, Tensions, and Transformations. A Conversation with Lynn Vavreck
In this week’s episode of then & now, we explore the 2024 presidential election and try to understand the enduring impact of a political realignment that began with Donald Trump’s rise in 2016. Joining us is Professor Lynn Vavreck, a UCLA professor and leading expert on U.S. elections. Professor...
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Why History Matters: Reproductive Rights and Justice
In this week’s episode of then & now, we present a recording of a recent event hosted by the UCLA History Department, "Why History Matters: Reproductive Rights and Justice." This event brought together experts to explore the far-reaching effects of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization...
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Reproductive Justice on the U.S.-Mexico Border: A Conversation With Lina-Maria Murillo
In this week’s episode of then & now, we delve into the complex history of reproductive justice in El Paso, Texas, a key city along the U.S.-Mexico border that has shaped broader conversations around race, health, and community care. Guest interviewer Professor Elizabeth O’Brien speaks with...
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Reproductive Healthcare, Religion, and Inequality in Brazil and Beyond: A Conversation with Cassia Roth
The topic of reproductive healthcare and access to abortion has emerged as a pivotal point in the weeks and months leading up to the 2024 presidential election in the U.S. In this week's episode of then & now, our guest interviewer Professor Elizabeth O’Brien speaks with Professor Cassia Roth, a...
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How Mathematics Shaped the Great Grid of America: A Conversation with Amir Alexander
Welcome back to then & now! To kick off our 5th season, we are joined by Professor Amir Alexander, a historian of mathematics in UCLA’s Luskin Department of History. His latest book, Liberty’s Grid, examines how Founding Father Thomas Jefferson transformed early America into a mathematical...
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From AMLO to Claudia: Mexico Elects a Woman President: A Conversation with Leila Miller
In this week's episode of then & now we explore a landmark moment in Mexican politics: the election of Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo as the country's first female president at the beginning of June 2024. Environmental scientist Sheinbaum secured a decisive victory, succeeding the current president,...
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Under the Heat Dome: A Conversation about Thermal Inequality with Bharat Venkat
2023 marked the hottest year recorded in human history, with predictions indicating a worsening global trend. In early June 2024, southern California experienced an extreme heat dome, with temperatures rising into the triple digits. Currently, heat alerts affect over 16 million people across...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
"The History-Politics Podcast: Putting the Past to Work" connects past to present, using historical analysis and context to help guide us through modern issues and policy decisions. Then & Now is brought to you by the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. This podcast is produced by David Myers and Roselyn Campbell, and features original music by Daniel Raijman.
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UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy
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"The History-Politics Podcast: Putting the Past to Work" connects past to present, using historical analysis and context to help guide us through modern issues and policy decisions. Then & Now is brought to you by the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. This podcast is produced by David...
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