Best Ben Railton Podcasts (2025)

1
Author Talk | BREAKING BIAS: Where Stereotypes and Prejudices Come From by Anu Gupta 55:34

4M ago55:34

55:34

For readers of Caste, Sapiens, and The Dawn of Everything, join us for a page-turning deep-dive into how bias is learned—plus a strikingly original and highly effective set of tools to un-learn it. Drawing on two decades of original research and experience training thousands of students, Anu Gupta, a lawyer, scientist, and educator whose work focus…

1
Postgame Press Conference: History, Sports, and the Battle for American Memory 20:35

5M ago20:35

20:35

Just one more thing--or, rather, just a handful more questions about the Celestials' Last Game!By Ben Railton

1
Ninth Inning: Aftermaths, Afterlives, and American Stories 33:34

5M ago33:34

33:34

Before we record the last out, we need to trace where our protagonists and our nation went in the decades following the final game--and all that they represent and remind us of in our histories and our present alike.By Ben Railton

1
Eighth Inning: Lingering Losses and Vital Victories 39:11

5M ago39:11

39:11

The Celestials' exile, just after their triumphant last game, was only one of many lingering losses and tragedies for Chinese Americans in the Exclusion era. Yet in the same period, young Chinese Americans and their allies, including a Chinese Educational Mission alum, fought for and won vital victories that helped guarantee Constitutional rights f…

1
Seventh Inning: Stealing Home: The Last Game, Part 2 30:08

6M ago30:08

30:08

A climactic triumph. An inescapable tragedy. It has all led to this, for the Celestials, for our story, and for us.By Ben Railton

1
Sixth Inning: To San Francisco and the Final Game, Part 1 28:36

6M ago28:36

28:36

A transcontinental train trip. An ambiguous athletic challenge. An exhibition game that exemplifies so much of the Celestials, the Chinese Educational Mission, the Exclusion Era, and the battle for America.By Ben Railton

1
Fifth Inning: The Chinese Exclusion Act and the End of the Educational Mission 30:10

6M ago30:10

30:10

The Chinese Exclusion Act and its many horrific predecessors and aftermaths sought to destroy existing Chinese American families and communities--including the Chinese Educational Mission and its Celestials baseball team.By Ben Railton

1
Fourth Inning: The Workingmen's Party and the Evolution of California 26:34

6M ago26:34

26:34

19th century San Francisco was one of the most diverse cities in the most multi-racial state in the expanding US--but it was also home to a new political party that linked labor activism to anti-Chinese racism and exclusion.By Ben Railton

1
Preview of the 6th Inning and the Game! 2:18

7M ago2:18

2:18

We're almost to play ball!By Ben Railton

1
Third Inning: The Celestials and Baseball in the 19th Century 25:44

7M ago25:44

25:44

The rise of baseball in the 19th century is one of the great American stories, and we can't tell it without including the successful semi-pro squad the Celestials.By Ben Railton

1
Second Inning: Denis Kearney and the Tragic Ironies of Irish American White Supremacy 27:13

7M ago27:13

27:13

Denis Kearney's experience as an immigrant, labor leader, and anti-Chinese activist exemplifies the tragic ironies of 19th century Irish American histories.By Ben Railton

1
First Inning: Yung Wing’s Chinese Educational Mission in the Era of Exclusion 23:44

7M ago23:44

23:44

Yung Wing's inspiring story, the founding of the Chinese Educational Mission and its baseball team, and the era of exclusion.By Ben Railton

1
Trailer 2:20

7M ago2:20

2:20

A tragic yet triumphant 1881 baseball game and the battle for America.By Ben Railton

1
Lisa Napoli, Ellen Clegg, & Margaret Low, "Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Founding Mothers of NPR" 56:48

3+ y ago56:48

56:48

In the years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, women in the workplace still found themselves relegated to secretarial positions or locked out of jobs entirely. This was especially true in the news business, a backwater of male chauvinism where a woman might be lucky to get a foothold on the “women’s pages.” But when a pioneering nonprofit called …

1
Peter S. Canellos and Farah Stockman, "The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan" 56:47

3+ y ago56:47

56:47

They say that history is written by the victors. But not in the case of the most famous dissenter on the Supreme Court. Almost a century after his death, it was John Marshall Harlan’s words that helped end segregation, and gave us our civil rights and our modern economic freedom.But his legacy would not have been possible without the courage of Rob…

1
Louis Menand and Maya Jasanoff, "The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War" 55:14

3+ y ago55:14

55:14

The Cold War was not just a contest of power. It was also about ideas, in the broadest sense―economic and political, artistic and personal. In The Free World, the acclaimed Pulitzer Prize–winning scholar and critic Louis Menand tells the story of American culture in the pivotal years from the end of World War II to Vietnam and shows how changing ec…

1
Ben Railton, "Of Thee I Sing: The Contested History of American Patriotism" 56:24

3+ y ago56:24

56:24

When we talk about patriotism in America, we tend to mean one form: the version captured in shared celebrations like the national anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance. But as Ben Railton argues, that celebratory patriotism is just one of four distinct forms: celebratory, the communal expression of an idealized America; mythic, the creation of nation…

1
Akhil Reed Amar, "The Words that Made Us: America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840" 56:15

3+ y ago56:15

56:15

When the US Constitution won popular approval in 1788, it was the culmination of thirty years of passionate argument over the nature of government. But ratification hardly ended the conversation. For the next half century, ordinary Americans and statesmen alike continued to wrestle with weighty questions in the halls of government and in the pages …

1
Martha S. Jones and Karen Holmes Ward, "Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers" 57:47

4y ago57:47

57:47

In the standard story, the suffrage crusade began in Seneca Falls in 1848 and ended with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. But this overwhelmingly white women's movement did not win the vote for most black women. Securing their rights required a movement of their own.In Vanguard, acclaimed historian Martha S. Jones offers a new …

1
Robert Mrazek, "The Indomitable Florence Finch: The Story of a War Widow Turned Resistance Fighter" 57:09

4y ago57:09

57:09

When Florence Finch died at the age of 101, few of her Ithaca, NY neighbors knew that this unassuming Filipina native was a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, whose courage and sacrifice were unsurpassed in the Pacific War against Japan. Long accustomed to keeping her secrets close in service of the Allies, Finch waited fifty years to reveal …

1
Diana Greenwald, "Painting by Numbers: Data-Driven Histories of Nineteenth-Century Art" 58:48

4y ago58:48

58:48

Painting by Numbers presents a groundbreaking blend of art historical and social scientific methods to chart, for the first time, the sheer scale of nineteenth-century artistic production. With new quantitative evidence for more than five hundred thousand works of art, Diana Seave Greenwald provides fresh insights into the nineteenth century, and t…

1
Don Hagist, "Noble Volunteers: The British Soldiers Who Fought the American Revolution" 1:06:40

4y ago1:06:40

1:06:40

Redcoats. For Americans, the word brings to mind the occupying army that attempted to crush the Revolutionary War. There was more to these soldiers than their red uniforms, but the individuals who formed the ranks are seldom described in any detail in historical literature, leaving unanswered questions. Who were these men? Why did they join the arm…

1
Boston Art Song Society, "Art Songs of Black American Composers" 1:26:52

4y ago1:26:52

1:26:52

Guest baritone Emery Stephens and pianist Ann Schaefer will perform a recital of works by African American composers. This program will include an open forum discussion about African American experiences in classical music. Dr. Stephens’ Singing Down the Barriers project aims to empower and encourage singers, voice teachers, voice coaches, and rese…

1
Emma Smith and Stephen Greenblatt, "This is Shakespeare" 58:53

4y ago58:53

58:53

A genius and prophet whose timeless works encapsulate the human condition like no other. A writer who surpassed his contemporaries in vision, originality, and literary mastery. A man who wrote like an angel, putting it all so much better than anyone else. Is this Shakespeare? Well, sort of. But it doesn’t tell us the whole truth. So much of what we…

1
Ralph Keyes, "The Hidden History of Coined Words" 55:08

4y ago55:08

55:08

Successful word-coinages—those that stay in currency for a good long time—tend to conceal their beginnings. We take them at face value and rarely when and where they were first minted. Engaging, illuminating, and authoritative, Ralph Keyes's The Hidden History of Coined Words explores the etymological underworld of terms and expressions, and uncove…

1
Annalee Newitz and Sarah Parcak, "Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age" 58:49

4y ago58:49

58:49

In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes readers on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of Ça…

1
Jamal Greene and Randall Kennedy, "How Rights Went Wrong" 56:47

4y ago56:47

56:47

Rights are a sacred part of American identity. Yet they were an afterthought for the Framers, and early American courts rarely enforced them. Only as a result of the racial strife that exploded during the Civil War—and a series of resulting missteps by the Supreme Court—did rights gain such outsized power. The result is a system of legal absolutism…

1
Janice P. Nimura, "The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women" 55:28

4y ago55:28

55:28

Elizabeth Blackwell believed from an early age that she was destined for a mission beyond the scope of "ordinary" womanhood. Though the world at first recoiled at the notion of a woman studying medicine, her intelligence and intensity ultimately won her the acceptance of the male medical establishment. In 1849, she became the first woman in America…

1
Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, "Sisters and Rebels: A Struggle for the Soul of America" 56:48

4y ago56:48

56:48

Winner of the PEN / Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography and the Southern Historical Association Sydnor AwardDescendants of a prominent slaveholding family, Elizabeth, Grace, and Katharine Lumpkin grew up in a culture of white supremacy. But while Elizabeth remained a lifelong believer, her younger sisters chose vastly different lives. Seekin…

1
John Matteson and Amy Cherry, "A Worse Place Than Hell: How Fredericksburg Changed a Nation" 57:03

4y ago57:03

57:03

December 1862 drove the United States toward a breaking point. The Battle of Fredericksburg shattered Union forces and Northern confidence. As Abraham Lincoln’s government threatened to fracture, this critical moment also tested five extraordinary individuals whose lives reflect the soul of a nation. The changes they underwent led to profound reper…

1
Bettye Kearse, "The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President’s Black Family" 57:53

4y ago57:53

57:53

For thousands of years, West African griots (men) and griottes (women) have recited the stories of their people. Without this tradition Bettye Kearse would not have known that she is a descendant of President James Madison and his slave, and half-sister, Coreen. In 1990, Bettye became the eighth-generation griotte for her family. Their credo—“Alway…

1
Robert Darnton and John Buchtel, "Pirating and Publishing" 1:05:44

4y ago1:05:44

1:05:44

In the late-18th century, a group of publishers in what historian Robert Darnton calls the "Fertile Crescent" countries located along the French border, stretching from Holland to Switzerland pirated the works of prominent (and often banned) French writers and distributed them in France, where laws governing piracy were in flux and any notion of "c…

1
Alice Baumgartner, "South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War" 1:00:25

4y ago1:00:25

1:00:25

The Underground Railroad to the North promised salvation to many American slaves before the Civil War. But thousands of people in the south-central United States escaped slavery not by heading north but by crossing the southern border into Mexico, where slavery was abolished in 1837.In South to Freedom, historian Alice L. Baumgartner tells the stor…

1
Justyne Fischer, "The Implications of Blackness in Birth of a Nation" 1:00:53

4y ago1:00:53

1:00:53

D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film, Birth of a Nation, glorified and revived the Ku Klux Klan in America. In contrast, Justyne Fischer’s woodcut examines the legacy of deep-rooted racism within American systems and institutions. Fischer’s Birth of a Nation renders the Klansmen as mountains, grand and carved into the American landscape. They are not hidden i…

1
Jo Marchant, "The Human Cosmos: A Secret History of the Stars" 1:00:07

4y ago1:00:07

1:00:07

For most of human history, we have led not just an earthly existence but a cosmic one. Celestial cycles drove every aspect of our daily lives. Our innate relationship with the stars shaped who we are—our religious beliefs, power structures, scientific advances, and even our biology. But over the last few centuries we have separated ourselves from t…

1
Theo Tyson, "The Harriet Hayden Albums: A History of Photography, Agency & Identity in Boston" 59:19

4y ago59:19

59:19

Join Theo Tyson, Polly Thayer Starr Fellow in American Art and Culture as she shares her insights and inquiries on a set of nineteenth-century photo albums that belonged to Harriet Bell Hayden (1816-1893), a survivor of slavery and anti-slavery activist. Married to famed abolitionist Lewis Hayden (1811-1889), Mrs. Hayden’s albums are a unique oppor…

1
Peniel E. Joseph and David Waters, "The Sword and the Shield" 54:51

4y ago54:51

54:51

To most Americans, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. represent contrasting ideals: self-defense vs. nonviolence, black power vs. civil rights, the sword vs. the shield. The struggle for black freedom is wrought with the same contrasts. While nonviolent direct action is remembered as an unassailable part of American democracy, the movement's mili…

1
Grace Talusan and Elif Armbruster, “The Body Papers: A Memoir” 41:50

5y ago41:50

41:50

March 3, 2020 at the Boston Athenæum.Born in the Philippines, young Grace Talusan moves with her family to a New England suburb in the 1970s. At school, she confronts racism as one of the few kids with a brown face. At home, the confusion is worse: her grandfather’s nightly visits to her room leave her hurt and terrified, and she learns to build a …

1
Heidi Pribell and Theo Tyson, “Curator’s Choice: Art + Design” 30:51

5y ago30:51

30:51

March 4, 2020 at the Boston Athenæum.Art + Design is part of a trio of events for ‘Curator’s Choice’ hosted by the Boston Athenæum’s Polly Thayer Starr Fellow in American Art & Culture Theo Tyson and Assistant Curator Ginny Badget.An evening to celebrate the historical and contemporary intersections of fashion, art, and design, Tyson will begin by …

1
EmpowerHER: Black Women in the Arts 1:05:12

5y ago1:05:12

1:05:12

February 19, 2020 at the Boston Athenæum.In partnership with the Network for Art Administrators of Color Boston (NAAC).Join us for an artful conversation with three preeminent leaders catalyzing change in Boston to make its cultural landscape more inclusive and supportive of Black women artists. Representing backgrounds ranging from music and museu…

1
Nancy Seasholes, “The Atlas of Boston History” 43:18

5y ago43:18

43:18

February 26, 2020 at the Boston Athenæum.Few American cities possess a history as long, rich, and fascinating as Boston’s. A site of momentous national political events from the Revolutionary War through the civil rights movement, Boston has also been an influential literary and cultural capital. From ancient glaciers to landmaking schemes and mode…

1
Russell Maret, “The Making of Character Traits” 33:09

5y ago33:09

33:09

February 11, 2020 at the Boston Athenæum.In this talk Russell Maret will discuss the three year process of making his most recent artist’s book, Character Traits. The book continues Maret’s investigation into alphabetical form, which he has undertaken over the last twenty years in a series of printed books and manuscripts, many of which are in the …

1
Richard Bell, “Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home” 36:06

5y ago36:06

36:06

February 6, 2020 at the Boston Athenæum.A gripping and true story about five boys who were kidnapped in the North and smuggled into slavery in the Deep South—and their daring attempt to escape and bring their captors to justice. Philadelphia, 1825: five young, free black boys fall into the clutches of the most fearsome gang of kidnappers and slaver…

1
Rabbi Dan Judson, Dr. Lorna Rivera. Rajini Srikanth, and Sarah Turner, “Community Conversations” 40:35

5y ago40:35

40:35

February 5, 2020 at the Boston Athenæum.To demonstrate the variety and richness of “essential knowledge” and the ways it can be defined, the cabinet in “Required Reading: Reimagining a Colonial Library” is filled with titles selected by ten community partners.Join Rabbi Dan Judson, Dean of the Rabbinical School at Hebrew College; Lorna Rivera, Dire…

1
Michelle Marchetti Coughlin, “Plymouth Colony First Lady Penelope Winslow” 45:03

5y ago45:03

45:03

January 28, 2020 at the Boston Athenæum.Penelope Pelham Winslow was a member of the English gentry (her third great-grandmother was Anne Boleyn's sister Mary) who was married to Plymouth Colony Governor Josiah Winslow. Although she was one of the most powerful women in Plymouth's history, she, like most of her female contemporaries, has been largel…

1
Kerri Greenidge, “Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter” 22:20

5y ago22:20

22:20

January 20, 2020 at the Boston Athenæum.This long-overdue biography reestablishes William Monroe Trotter’s essential place next to Douglass, Du Bois, and King in the pantheon of American civil rights heroes.William Monroe Trotter (1872– 1934), though still virtually unknown to the wider public, was an unlikely American hero. With the stylistic verv…

1
Roxana Robinson, “Dawson’s Fall” 42:14

5y ago42:14

42:14

January 14, 2020 at the Boston Athenæum. In Dawson’s Fall, a novel based on the lives of Roxana Robinson’s great-grandparents, we see America at its most fragile, fraught, and malleable. Set in 1889, in Charleston, South Carolina, Robinson’s tale weaves her family’s journal entries and letters with a novelist’s narrative grace, and spans the life o…

1
Ted Reinstein, “Wicked Pissed: New England's Most Famous Feuds” 55:26

5y ago55:26

55:26

January 16, 2020 at the Boston Athenæum. From sports to politics, food to finance, aviation to engineering, to bitter disputes over simple boundaries themselves, New England’s feuds have peppered the region’s life for centuries. They’ve been raw and rowdy, sometimes high minded and humorous, and in a place renowned for its deep sense of history, of…

1
Bettina Norton, “A Foray into Forgery and the Boston Athenæum's Role in Exposing It” 47:03

5y ago47:03

47:03

January 9, 2020 at the Boston Athenæum.An over-zealous Boston art dealer in the early years of the 20th century made knowingly false attributions of 18th-century portraits from the Salem-Boston area. The attributions were promulgated by colleagues and later by art scholars until disproved by two other historians. The saga is a sub-chapter in Norton…

1
Brent Budsberg, Ellen Kaspern, and Jeff Altepeter, “Reading Craft” 58:52

5+ y ago58:52

58:52

December 16, 2019 at the Boston Athenæum.Panelists from Current Projects and North Bennet Street School—representing the worlds of traditional woodworking and craft bookbinding—explore the significance of their work for the Required Reading exhibition: a full-scale replica of a unique Colonial Revival bookcase; a faithful copy of a seventeenth-cent…

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