Journalism History

Episode 56: Intimidation Through Libel Law

Historian Aimee Edmondson describes how opponents of the Civil Rights movement weaponized libel law for decades to squelch free speech and silence African American dissent. Transcripts of the show are available at https://journalism-history.org/podcast/.

Episode 55: The Newspaper That Shook the Republican Party

Author Meg Heckman discusses her new book, "Political Godmother," about newspaper publisher Nackey Scripps Loeb, one of the most influential conservative voices in the latter half of the 20th century. Show transcripts are available at https://journalism-history.org/podcast/. 

Episode 54: The Most Trusted Man in America

The Journalism History podcast marks the anniversary of the death of legendary CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite with interviews with television historian Mike Conway and Amanda Morrow, curator of the Walter Cronkite Memorial in Missouri. Show transcripts are available at https://journalism-history.org/podcast/. 

Episode 53: The Problems with Polls

American University associate professor Wendy Melillo explains how political polls have been used—and misused—and the election prediction mishaps in American journalism history that followed. Show transcripts are available at https://journalism-history.org/podcast/. 

Episode 52: Court Held at Midnight

Researcher Claire Rounkles discusses newspaper complicity in the 1894 lynching of Roscoe Parker in Ohio. Show transcripts are available at https://journalism-history.org/podcast/

Episode 51: The Father of Public Relations

Shelley Spector of the Museum of Public Relations describes interviewing opinion-making pioneer Edward Bernays about his landmark campaigns to sell bacon as a breakfast food and cigarettes as “torches of freedom” for women. Show transcripts are available at https://journalism-history.org/podcast/. 

Episode 50.5: Why Does Journalism History Matter?

To celebrate our first 50 episodes, we reflect with prior guests on the central mission of our show: Why does journalism history matter?

Episode 50: A Pioneer in AIDS Coverage

Author Andrew Stoner discusses his new book about the complex life of Randy Shilts, a journalist who dedicated much of his career to providing coverage of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. Show transcripts are available at https://journalism-history.org/podcast/. 

BONUS: The History of American Epidemics

Author Katie Foss discusses her upcoming book, Constructing the Outbreak, which analyzes seven epidemics spanning more than 200 years. She covers how shifts in journalism and medicine influenced the coverage, preservation, and fictionalization of different disease outbreaks. Show transcripts are available at https://journalism-history.org/podcast/. 

Episode 49: The Made-for-Television Tunnel Escape

Historian Mike Conway describes the controversial production of a 1962 NBC documentary that captured the digging of a tunnel beneath the Berlin Wall to sneak East Germans to the West. Show transcripts are available at https://journalism-history.org/podcast/.