BackStory with the American History Guys

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BackStory is a weekly one-hour public radio show that provides a national broadcast audience with an enjoyable and accessible way of engaging challenging themes in American history and how they connect with today. The show is hosted by renowned historians Peter Onuf, Ed Ayers, and Brian Balogh. BackStory’s signature sound and spirit of inquiry emanates from the hearts and minds of its genial hosts, whose unscripted brilliance reflects a warmth and rapport that comes from their longtime friendship.

Please confirm carriage of BackStory with the American History Guys by contacting Steve Martin at 703-715-0827 or steve@sfmconsulting.com.

Moving from current headlines to drill down into U.S. history, each surprising BackStory episode features lively interviews with a diverse roster of scholars, experts, and ordinary citizens from around the country; listener calls; host discussions; and produced pieces. Topics are as diverse as college sports, reenactments, sugar, memorials, domestic terrorism, birthing, homeownership, the post office, philanthropy, protests, privacy, marriage, revivalism, and childhood—all in the context of American history.

Since BackStory first began as a monthly show in 2008, episodes have been broadcast by more than 130 primary stations in 39 states, 29 in the top 50 markets by population. Podcasts have been downloaded 1.4 million times.

BackStory is produced by VFH Radio at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Major funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities with additional corporate, foundation, institutional, and individual support.

Please visit our station landing page for upcoming episodes, promotional photos, and other information.

 


Pieces

PROMO - "Monumental Disagreements: Memorials in America"
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: Promos for Upcoming Shows
Caption: Proposed Mothers’ Memorial , Credit: John Geddes, 1922-30 (LOC)
30-second promo for "Monumental Disagreements: Memorials in America" with 5 second hole for station-specific time/date tag.

Bought by Georgia Public Broadcasting and KUMD


  • Added: May 22, 2013
  • Length: :30
  • Purchases: 2
Who Owns Comedy?
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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Host Brian Balough chats with Law professor Chris Sprigman about the intellectual property debates surrounding standup comedy – no joke!

  • Added: May 20, 2013
  • Length: 10:32
Freedom of Expression™
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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BackStory hears from Kembrew McLeod – journalist, professor, and intellectual property “prankster” – on how a system meant to encourage innovation ...

  • Added: May 20, 2013
  • Length: 02:39
Copyright and Creativity
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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Media and legal scholar Siva Vaidhyanathan talks with Host Brian Balough about the expansion of copyright protections.

  • Added: May 20, 2013
  • Length: 08:30
Patent Pending: A History of Intellectual Property
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Full Episodes
Caption: 1814 wood engraving of two types of locking mechanisms., Credit: (Library of Congress).
Can genes be patented? Are downloaders inhibiting musical creativity – or enhancing it? This week’s BackStory explores how Americans have viewed “i...

Bought by WMMT, WFPL News, KREV-LP, WOUB, WTJU and more


  • Added: May 17, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 6
Promo - "Patent Pending: A History of Intellectual Property"
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: Promos for Upcoming Shows
Piece image
30-second promo for: Patent Pending: A History of Intellectual Property with 5 second hole for station-specific time/date tag.

Bought by Troy Public Radio


  • Added: May 14, 2013
  • Length: :30
  • Purchases: 1
To Pledge Allegiance
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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The American History Guys riff on citizenship. Does being born on American soil guarantee American citizenship?

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: May 13, 2013
  • Length: 07:07
  • Purchases: 1
Devil Babies
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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Host Peter Onuf talks to religion scholar Peggy Bendroth about “Day of Doom” by Michael Wigglesworth, a poem in which dead babies talk to us from b...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: May 13, 2013
  • Length: 07:13
  • Purchases: 1
Before the Ward
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich talks to Host Ed Ayers about the movement away from midwifery and towards hospital births.

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: May 13, 2013
  • Length: 09:03
  • Purchases: 1
Born in the USA: A History of Birth [rebroadcast]
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Full Episodes
Caption: Migrant cotton picker and her baby, Buckeye, AZ, 1940, Credit: (National Archives).
It’s BackStory’s birthday! To celebrate one year as a weekly show, the American History Guys are going back to where it all begins: birth. From mid...

Bought by WOUB and WTJU


  • Added: May 10, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 2
PROMO - Born in the USA
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: Promos for Upcoming Shows
Piece image
30-second promo for: Born in the USA with 5 second hole for station-specific time/date tag.

  • Added: May 08, 2013
  • Length: :30
A Negotiable End Date
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Host Brian Balough explores the meaning of "wartime" with Mary Dudziak, an historian at Emory University's School of Law. Well after V-J Day, Dudz...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: May 06, 2013
  • Length: 10:50
  • Purchases: 1
Bounding Manifest Destiny
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Host Peter Onuf talks with Amy Greenberg, an historian at Pennsylvania State University, on the rogue diplomat that ended the Mexican-American War ...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: May 06, 2013
  • Length: 11:01
  • Purchases: 1
Mission Accomplished: How Wars End
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Full Episodes
Caption: May 1, 2003: President George W. Bush declares an end to major combat operations in Iraq , Credit: (Paul Morse, White House photographer).
The declaration of "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq was famously premature. But have America's other wars had neat or definitive endings?  In this ep...

Bought by WRPI, WFPL News, WOUB, WTJU, and KREV-LP


  • Added: May 03, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 5
Promo - "Mission Accomplished: How Wars End"
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: Promos for Upcoming Shows
Piece image
30-second promo for "Mission Accomplished: How Wars End" 5-second music bed at end for station-specific time/date tag.

  • Added: May 01, 2013
  • Length: :30
Seen and Believed
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Ed Ayers talks with historian Amy Wood about how lynching photographs were used first by white supremacists to spread terror.

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Apr 29, 2013
  • Length: 11:26
  • Purchases: 1
Blurring the Blurry Lines
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
BackStory Producer Eric Mennel tells the story of how a turn-of-the-century American writer grappled with his own ambivalence about the meanings an...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Apr 29, 2013
  • Length: 08:04
  • Purchases: 1
Fear Tactics: A History of Domestic Terrorism [rebroadcast]
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Full Episodes
Caption: Woodcut of the 1886 Haymarket Square Bombing., Credit: Harper's Weekly, LOC.
With recent events in Boston highlighting the horrors of domestic terrorism, we're re-broadcasting this episode of BackStory, which originally aire...

Bought by WCAI / WNAN, WTJU, WOUB, WXDU, KFOK-LP and more


  • Added: Apr 26, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 6
Promo-"Fear Tactics"
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: Promos for Upcoming Shows
Caption: A woodcut of the Haymarket Square bombing in 1886., Credit: From Harper’s Weekly
30-second promo for "Fear Tactics: A History of Domestic Terrorism " 5-second music bed at end for station-specific time/date tag.

  • Added: Apr 23, 2013
  • Length: :30
Little America
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Hosts Brian Balogh and Peter Onuf tell the story of the founding of Liberia.

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Apr 22, 2013
  • Length: 06:43
  • Purchases: 1

Playlists

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People who work with BackStory with the American History Guys

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Tony Field (Admin)
Producer
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Andrew Wyndham
Executive Producer VFH Radio
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Eric Mennel
Associate Producer
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Jess Engebretson
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Jamal Millner
Technical Director
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Chioke Ianson
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Steve Martin
Public radio programming consultant
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Emily Charnock