#100 Sidebar Conversation: Eric Yanis of the Other States of America History Podcast

How the pandemic motivated both of us to start our podcasts;

Eric on teaching middle schoolers in New York during the pandmic;

The different ways in which we put together our episodes;

The rapidly declining interest in history among college undergraduates and some of its causes, including the de-emphasis of history in primary and middle schools;

Middle schoolers today have almost no exposure to history before the sixth grade — “kids today” have not even heard of “teepees”;

How interest in history rises as we age – “People become more interested in history the more history they have”;

Should history podcasters be intimated by academic historians, and should academics be more supportive of popular history, even if it offends their professional sensibilities?

“The zone where lives can live”;

A digression on the historiography of the Popham/Sagadahoc Colony and the reasons for its failure;

Our fantasy pub crawl with figures from sixteenth and seventeenth century America, assuming a universal translator;

Things we hear from listeners;

The competing claims for the inspiration of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”;

Eric discusses the legacy of New Netherland in our language, our celebration of Christmas, and in our national self-image as a “melting pot”;

So maybe I should publish the podcast on YouTube.