The Road to Now

Coca-Cola is one of the most well-known products on planet earth, but did you ever wonder how a brown fizzy drink fueled the rise of a corporate juggernaut? The answer, says Ohio State historian Bartow Elmore, has everything to do with its business structure. In this episode, Bart offers his take on how Coke went from Atlanta soda parlors in the late 19th century to markets across the globe in less than a century, all along reaping tremendous benefits from public infrastructure while passing the bulk of its environmental costs on to others. Bart also talks about the difficulties of doing research on powerful corporations, why he thinks we should care about environmental history, and the meaning of what he calls "Coca-Cola Capitalism." Dr. Bartow Elmore is Associate Professor of History at The Ohio State University. His book, Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism (W.W. Norton, 2015) won the Axiom Business Book Award for best business commentary in 2015 and the Council of Graduate Schools 2016 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities. He is currently researching the history of Monsanto. You can follow him on twitter at @BartElmore. You can get Citizen Coke on audiobook at libro.fm. Click here & enter promo code RTN at checkout to get this book & 3 more for just $15! The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Technology is transforming the production & availability of knowledge. Many experts predict AI & nanotechnology will soon bring about a fundamental change in the ways we work, relate to one another, and are known, while skeptics point to the industrial revolution to dismiss these concerns. In this episode Ben speaks with Roy Wyman, who specializes in healthcare law and the relationship of technology to medicine, to find out how recent innovations are already affecting our lives, and where the future may take us. Roy Wyman is Partner at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP, where he is co-chair of the firm's Privacy & Security Industry Group and a member of the firm's healthcare regulatory and litigation team. You can read his articles on healthcare, security and technology by clicking here. He also designed and is the lead attorney for HIPAA2Z, an automated HIPAA privacy and security compliance tool offered by Nelson Mullins. The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

We make sense of our place in the world through stories. Our history as individuals & communities is always present, but the parts of the story we emphasize, as well as those we forget, are crucial in understanding the world today and in shaping the decisions we make going forward. In this episode, Bob, Ben and professional storyteller Donna Washington speak about the power of story and its potential for helping inspire action in a live forum hosted by National Conference for State Legislatures' Executive Director Tim Storey as part of NCSL's Legislative Summit held in Nashville, TN on August 7, 2019. A special thanks to Tim Storey and everyone at NCSL for the invitation to participate in the summit, and to Donna Washington for sharing her wisdom with us and the crowd. We're also grateful to all those who attended the panel and took the time to speak with us afterward. The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. For more on the podcast, visit our website: www.TheRoadToNow.com. This episode was recorded by NCSL and edited by Gary Fletcher.

RTN Theology now is now on its own podcast feed! Subscribe anywhere you get The Road to Now for RTN Theology episodes 12-19 and more! RTN Theology #11 features "America's Best Theologian" (according to Time Magazine), Stanley Hauerwas. Chris Breslin brings an intimate conversation from Dr. Hauerwas' office at Duke Divinity School that touches on the recent passing of his friend, Jean Vanier, the life of the church in the era of Trump, and what it means to become people of virtue and character. Professor and author, Dave Fitch chimes in with some of his favorite Hauerwasisms and the ways that Dr. Hauerwas has shaped his life and work. He also shares his most recent book project, The Church of Us vs. Them. We're also treated to a special reading of a chapter on the virtue of Justice by Stanley Hauerwas from his recent book of letters written to his Godson. Throughout the episode are selections from Deeper Well Music Collective's (Portland, OR) new release, Volume III. For more on this episode and a full bibliography on the essential Hauerwas, check out our episode page by clicking here. The Road to Now is Part of the Osiris Podcast Network.

Creating games that are both fun and educational takes a lot of work, but Digitalmill's Ben Sawyer has been doing it successfully for more than two decades. In this episode we speak with Ben about the art of creating serious games and his work on the American Revolution-based game "Revolutionary Choices." Just to clarify: Yes, there are two Ben Sawyers on this episode. People have confused them before, which is how they met. But we promise you'll be able to tell them apart on this episode. To find out more about Revolutionary Choices, check out the game's website: www.RevChoicesGame.org. The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

When the city of Apex, NC was founded in 1873, it was little more than a railroad stop with a tiny rural population. In the last half-century, however, the development of the Research Triangle Park has thrust the town into the 21st century with tremendous force, with the population increasing more than tenfold in the last three decades. In spite of all this change, Apex has retained its historic beauty and continues to be a highly-desirable place to live. In this episode, Bob talks about his research on Apex, which he conducted as part of his graduate coursework at Arizona State University. The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

When the city of Apex, NC was founded in 1873, it was little more than a railroad stop with a tiny rural population. In the last half-century, however, the development of the Research Triangle Park has thrust the town into the 21st century with tremendous force, with the population increasing more than tenfold in the last three decades. In spite of all this change, Apex has retained its historic beauty and continues to be a highly-desirable place to live. In this episode, Bob talks about his research on Apex, which he conducted as part of his graduate coursework at Arizona State University. The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Robert E. Lee's surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865 marked the end of the American Civil War, but it was just one of many times that officers and soldiers faced the reality of surrender. In fact, throughout the four years of the war, approximately one in four soldiers surrendered to the opposing army. In this episode, David Silkenat explains how looking at surrender as both an experience and a set of codes offers a new and insightful perspective on the Civil War and those who lived through it. Dr. David Silkenat is Senior Lecturer in American History at the University of Edinburgh and author of three books, the most recent of which is Waving the White Flag: How Surrender Defined the American Civil War (UNC Press, 2019). He is also the cohost of The Whiskey Rebel podcast. You can follow David on twitter at @davidsilkenat. The Road to Now is hosted and produced by Bob Crawford of The Avett Brothers and Dr. Benjamin Sawyer of Middle Tennessee State University. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. A proud member of the Osiris Podcast Network.

Is the United States an empire? US citizens have struggled with this question for a long time. Though our historical narrative traces our origins to the war for independence against the British Empire, we often forget that the US has presided over territories since the very beginning. Today about 4 million people in the territories of American Samoa, the Northern Marinara Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are subject to the US government, yet cannot vote for President and have only symbolic representation in congress. At the same time, the US maintains a global network of about 800 military bases in 80 countries. For these reasons and more, Daniel Immerwahr says the United States is definitely an empire. In this episode, Daniel explains how this happened, the ways that US citizens have debates their country's role in the world, and how a country born of an anti-imperialist revolution became the thing it professed (and still professes) to despise. He also shares some fascinating stories about how the US military helped make The Beatles, why some people claimed John McCain was not eligible to be President, and how citizens of the United States of America began referring to their country as simply "America." Daniel Immerwahr is Associate Professor of History at Northwestern University, and author of the book How To Hide An Empire: A History of the Greater United States (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2019). You can follow him on twitter at @dimmerwahr. How To Hide An Empire is available on audiobook from libro.fm. Click here and use promo code RTN at checkout to get this book and two more for just $15! The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

RTN Theology now is now on its own podcast feed! Subscribe to RTN Theology anywhere you get The Road to Now for episodes 12-19 and more! This episode of RTN Theology centers on the life, thought, and legacy of German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bob Crawford talks with professor Stephen Haynes, author of The Battle for Bonhoeffer about how Bonhoeffer has become a cultural Rorschach test, often coopted and reflecting his interpreters, but also how his life and work can be relevant and transformative for today. New co-host and co-producer, Chris Breslin explores some of the ways Bonhoeffer continues to influence by interviewing Pastor José Humphreys (Seeing Jesus in East Harlem) about ministry in Harlem after Bonhoeffer and then reflects on Bifrost Art's Bonhoeffer's Prayer by Bifrost Arts.