Download b6858689-c33f-4a1e-be30-c77093cc3506.mp3 This is the first episode of 2026, which means that we are at the beginning of the fifth season of this show. That’s a lot of great conversations about writing history, and I want to thank you for being here for them.
Download 618707f6-6e28-42e0-abdd-1e910b1b5e4d.mp3 I have a soft spot for historians who follow their curiosity through a range of subjects that might, at first glance, seem unrelated. So I was especially delighted to get to interview this episode’s guest, Dr. Amy Erdman Farrell. Amy is a
Download a0e3288f-945d-4ce8-a762-7c900b88a020.mp3 Welcome back to Drafting the Past, a podcast about the craft of writing history. For this one, I’m joined by historian of science Dr. Alex Wellerstein. I’ve been a fan of Alex since at least his first book, Restricted Data: The
Download 49c18c58-23d6-4e5d-a3e0-ee683e2973f0.mp3 Welcome back to Drafting the Past. I’m thrilled to be joined in this episode by historian Dr. Edward Watts. Ed is a professor of history at the University of California San Diego. He is the author of seven books, including Mortal Republic:
Download 38ab2106-0b90-4e71-bc6b-6bbdfac96ddb.mp3 This episode’s guest and I share a last name (no relation, though), but that’s not the only thing we have in common. We both grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where our history education left out most of the violence by
Listen to an interview with Jessica Lepler about her book Canal Dreamers, her writing process, the founding of a second book writers workshop at SHEAR, and more.
Download 07e56be2-483d-456b-b7cb-5a06e0382f70.mp3 I’ve talked to many historians who have interviewed sources in order to write their histories over more than 70 episodes of Drafting the Past, but I don’t think any has spent quite as much time getting to know their subject in
Download ed48b984-d5ee-425f-bb06-c2277b4aa8b8.mp3 Historians never quite know what kind of discoveries will enable them to write a history. For today’s guest, the list of things that contributed to his most recent book included a long-shot grant proposal, an elementary school fundraiser, and the rise
Download d6ab0cb2-f93d-435d-b455-f18e4da1e852.mp3 Even though Dr. Joanne Paul had wanted to be a writer for a long time, she had lost sight of that identity and had to find her way back to it. But now, she has embraced creativity and imagination as a historian, and
Download b6879124-3e73-4dd2-9d3b-b6cc4129e791.mp3 How do you write a history if you’re not quite sure which—if any—of your sources is telling the truth? All historians have to deal with sources who exaggerate, or mislead, or just come from differing perspectives. But my guest in