7 Questions with Jason Vuic, Author of Swamp Peddlers

 

Originally from Punta Gorda, Florida, Jason Vuic is a writer and historian from Fort Worth, Texas.  He is the author of several books, including The Swamp Peddlers: How Lot Sellers, Land Scammers, and Retirees Built Modern Florida and Transformed the American Dream (UNC Press, 2021), The Yucks! Two Years in Tampa with the Losingest Team in NFL History (Simon and Schuster, 2016) and The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History (Hill and Wang, 2010).  Jason is a graduate of Wake Forest University and holds an M.A. in history from the University of Richmond and a Ph.D. in history from Indiana University Bloomington. He has been both a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar and a Fulbright Scholar, and has appeared on such well-known programs as NPR’s Weekend Edition, Fox and Friends in the Morning, and C-SPAN’s Book TV.  His website is  www.jasonvuic.com .

 

1. How and when did you get  hooked on history?

I guess I’ve liked learning about history. I used to read a lot as a kid.  My mom was a voracious reader and a junior high librarian, so we went to our town’s library once a week religiously plus I had access to all the books in her library as well.  My favorite books were those now wildly-out-date biographies of “heroes” like Genghis Khan and William the Conqueror and Napoleon. I also read biographies of sports stars and I guess developed a knack for understanding the past, for understanding what came when and how one era led to another.  

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

My father enjoyed history...especially World War II documentaries.  He was a Marine during the Korean War and was just a bit too young for WWII.  He kind of idealized the world war so we had coffee table books and visited museums and admired and talked about the “Greatest Generation” in our house long before Tom Brokaw made the Greatest Generation a thing.  Also, my father’s parents were Serbian immigrants from Croatia who came through Ellis Island prior to World War I. We were and are intensely proud of that, so understanding what was what historically, traveling, and reading about the past were really big deals in my family.  My mother’s side also had stories, really interesting ones, so suffice it to say, history and learning history really mattered to us.

3. How does history play  a part of your professional life/career?

I went to a good liberal arts college in the South where virtually everyone who studied history went on to law school. That was my plan but as I entered school the war in Yugoslavia broke out. We had relatives there and had always read and tried to learn about the area and had visited in the 1980s.  My relatives in Croatia lived in the eye of storm and experienced some brutal stuff.  So my interest quickly became a passion, and I gave up trying to go to law school in favor of studying the history of Eastern Europe in hopes of teaching or maybe working over there in some way. I was hooked.

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?

For me, at least, it has always been a matter of learning who you are and where you live and how the world around you came to be. I grew up in a small town in Southwest Florida, which itself was rich in history, but where generations of transplants had little interest in Florida’s past.  Not everyone of course, but people in my part of the state had come to Florida to retiree, to recreate.  There wasn't much interest in the past and it always made me feel kinda rootless.  So history was a matter of learning who I was and where I was from.  

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

I’m all over the place. My Ph.D. is in Balkan and East European history and I have written two books on the subject. But I also taught world history and general European history courses as a college professor and really enjoyed that.  Lately I’ve  focused on Florida history and the history of sport.    

6.        Your most recent book is Swamp Peddlers, about the boom and bust of Florida real estate. Who were the Swamp Peddlers and how did they shape modern Florida?

As I define them, they were big land developers during the early post-World War II period who bought up cattle ranches, denuded forest land, and even swamp land to subdivide Florida into millions of residential lots, which they sold to Northerners on the installment plan, sometimes for $10 down and $10 a month.  They focused first on retirees, so we’re not talking about beachfront property here.  We’re talking about places in southern and central Florida near the coast but more often than not in the undeveloped hinterland of the state.  But, what had been hinterland quickly developed into sprawling communities like Cape Coral, Port St. Lucie, Deltona, and Port Charlotte.  I call these places the “great Florida exurbs,” those giant instant communities with no downtowns that rely on retiree income to keep the lights on but where property is cheap and there are still hundreds of thousands of residential lots.  These places to me are the future of Florida, like it or not.

7. I’ve asked this question, or a variation, of others:  Why Florida? Is there something endemic to Florida that brings out the con artist and Florida man (or woman) in its citizens? What’s your opinion?

I know one explanation as to why Florida man is so prevalent is that Florida has exceptionally open laws regarding police reports and arrest reports so journalists can read the details of arrests in the state far easier than in other states. 

But I also think Florida is in some respects rootless. People aren’t born there. People aren’t from there. Right now less than 40 percent of the state population is native born. It’s a giant mix up and mashup of peoples and cultures from all over the United States and from all over the world so there’s a lot of cultural confusion there.  

As for land sales, Florida has always been wildly pro development, insanely so.  Land developers were good, at least to the state legislature, and the laws they passed and the industry watchdogs they created tended to shield wrongdoers.  

7 Questions with Steve Kling, Founder and CEO of The Historical Game Company, LLC and THGC Publishing

 

 Stephen L. Kling, Jr. is the owner of THGC Publishing and The Historical Game Company, LLC. Steve's endeavors include both publishing historical books and historically themed games. While Stephen is a full-time attorney, he has devoted a large part of his life to studying, writing about and promoting history.

His books can be found on Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=stephen+l.+kling&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

 

His games can be found at Noble Knight Games in the US:

https://www.nobleknight.com/Publisher/Historical-Game-Company-The

 

In Europe, the games can be found at Second Chance Games:

https://www.secondchancegames.com/index.php/manufacturer/thgc

 1. How and when did you get hooked on history?

As a young boy, my father who was a graduate of a prestigious military academy took me to see epic movies like Ben Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, El Cid, 55 Days at Peking, etc. I always wanted to know more and the story behind the movie. Plus, my parents divorced and when my mother remarried and was trying to start a new family, I was routinely dumped at the local library for the weekends and spent lots of time reading history and biography books. One that captured my attention was The Sword Does Not Jest, about a 16 year old boy king who became one of the greatest military leaders of history. Very few people knew that story or that Sweden was once a great power. I came back to that history in a big way later in life.

 2.          What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

Well, my father redirected by dual archaeological and history degree pursuits to what he called more economically viable studies. So I went on to get a business administration degree, a master’s in finance and a law degree. He told me if you are successful in life, you can always come back to history. I hated the answer but he was right in my case. Being an attorney taught me to do incredibly detailed research for which I had some notoriety. After writing some historically related law articles, I turned back to history which I had continued to study since college. In the early 2000s, I spent some time doing some playtesting, consulting and development work for some of the larger historical games companies. In 2014, I decided to write about lesser known topics of military history and produce some of my own game titles. I found research my endeavors with history to be very personally rewarding.

3.          How does history play a part of your professional life/career?

Interestingly, the publication of historical books and games has led to several new law clients. One of my claims to fame was the publication of a rather groundbreaking set of articles in the Journal of the Missouri Bar on the history and purpose of Missouri’s municipal land planning and zoning laws. Boring stuff to most, but in the legal realm, it caused quite a discussion and change in how some cities approached the application of these laws. As an aside, it was quite interesting that most people had no idea that zoning in this country really did not come along until 1916. It was the construction of a building in New York which cut off most of the view of another building (giving it the nickname of the “thief of light and air”) that caused New York to blaze the way in zoning laws.

4.          Why is studying/knowing history important?

It seems rather cliché, but those that cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Plus, it is the study of human endeavor. People, especially those in conflict or adversity, do some incredible (and some disgraceful) things and the study of those events help define us as people and hopefully inspire where the events involved sacrifice, valor and generosity. 

5.          What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

I consider myself a student of military history though general history and ancillary aspects such as diplomacy and geography interest me. I have studied a lot of different areas of history and have an extensive personal library. The list is probably close to endless but I think it speaks for itself some that my first few books were on the Great Northern War and the American Revolutionary War in the west. 

6.        How did you get started creating historical games? How important is historical integrity in a game’s playability? Where can people find your games?

I first became exposed to historical games in college. They were quite complex and the artwork was pitiful by today’s standards, but many were clearly the product of some detailed research. I buy a lot of games. While I don’t play most games I buy, I love to study the systems and how a game on a historical subject is designed and how it portrays and simulates history, particularly where you have an opportunity to see if you can change historical results. For a time I did some playtesting for some of the larger companies and then was asked to design and develop some games for those companies. 

My vision of games became more focused on simpler and historically thematic games, especially on lesser known subjects. That was somewhat contrary to the direction of some companies for monster games or for “Euro” type games which sacrificed a lot of history for multiple player options, high cost components including the rage for paintable miniatures, and fantasy. Euros are very popular but it was not the direction I was interested in. I do understand the profit motive for such efforts but it is less so for me and I have not given up my day job as there is not much money in making historical games and writing books. Having the ability to do my own design and artwork made the production of games easier and far less costly though each one does take considerable time to bring out to production. I enjoy the challenge of the heavy research, design (which includes a lot of math and statistics) and injection of thematic history in the game development process. The games generally cover topics such as battles and wars but always include pieces representing historical people and historical military units and always have cards. The cards inject additional thematic history and cover events or conditions that help or inhibit game play from turn to turn and provide variety in replay. My games differ. I did a game that had more dice rolling than usual on the French and Indian War which was pretty popular. Two young teenagers help playtest it and their mother told me they wore the game out playing it. A nice overview of my game on the historic Battle of Quebec can be viewed here on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBZGkxlSBvk. 

These days my games are mostly developed for museums and other historical groups. I have done games for the Swedish Army Museum, French colonial groups and soon for an American Revolutionary War exhibit. I am currently in discussions with some museums and historical groups on a Second Seminole War game. Yes, another lesser known subject full of fascinating history and personalities on both sides. The preliminary box work is below giving some idea of the game. The game will go forward if one of these groups agrees to sponsor- meaning paying for printing and helping in marketing as niche games like this do not have a real commercial market. While somewhat focused on Sweden, I actually did a paper on the history of historical games for a Scandinavian academic conference several years ago. I don’t aspire to be a big player in making games but I do enjoy it.

7.      You’ve also become an author. Please tell us about your most recent books? Are you working on a new project, either as a book or a game?

While I enjoy developing games, I have spent far more times on books. After some grueling years of practicing law I wanted to scale back some and write books I had in mind for quite some time. From practicing law, I developed an ability to research efficiently, absorb and categorize large amounts of information and write incredibly quickly which are very helpful. I certainly am not one to shy away from ambitious projects. In 2015 after three years of work, I edited and co-authored the 2 volume The Great Northern War Compendium with 42 experts from 11 different countries. My interest in this history stemmed way back to reading The Sword Does Not Jest. It was the first true international effort to cover in English what was a major military with far-ranging implications to today’s world. It started off as a much smaller project with a nucleus of experts including one of the main ones in Sweden, Colonel Einar Lyth. But soon professors and other experts from all over Europe were contacting me to join this international effort. The book grew to 2 volumes and started my vision of having new thematic art and maps to adorn the book. The book has received international acclaim. Of course, no major publisher wanted to publish the book. It was not World War II or the Civil War and the inclusion of new art and maps, particularly in color, was not something they felt they could make lots of money on. I found that interesting, as their non-color books with few maps were usually more expensive than my books. There was also the fact that I was not a professor with a proven track record. My legal assistant suggested we could learn the publishing business and do it ourselves, and she was right, which led to THGC Publishing. I have my own bevy of contract graphic designers, artists and professional indexers.

 

 

 Next up was the little known Battle of St. Louis during the American Revolutionary War. I am descended from a man in the St. Louis militia during the battle so bringing this history to light was important to me. I attended an annual commemoration a few years before and saw the incredibly small turnout and that the organizer was lamenting the lack of interest. The book idea was born and I walked down to the organizer and told her I could help. I first contacted a researcher in Spain who I knew was studying this history, particularly the history of the St. Louis commander, Fernando de Leyba. I knew access to the Spanish archives in Seville (where all the colonial Spanish history is kept) would be crucial to bring new discoveries to light to tell the full story. My Spanish was also not up to the delicate and voluminous translations that were needed. It became a great partnership and after educating her on military terminology, many new discoveries were made on never before published or cited documents. The close friendship of Fernando de Leyba and George Rogers Clark was instrumental to the British defeat and has received no recognition until our book. After the book was published, an elaborate celebration by the Spanish military honoring Fernando de Leyba and erecting a monument incorporating his aid to the United States independence effort was erected in Ceuta. I had over 50 speaking engagements on the book and in 2021 HEC-TV (Higher Education Channel) produced an hour long documentary on the book which just won the St. Louis Filmmakers award for best historical documentary and has been nominated for a Mid America Emmy.

 

 

I knew from that documentary, people would want to know more, so I gathered 12 authors from the US and Spain to write The American Revolutionary War in the West including my friend in Spain from The Battle of St. Louis effort. After the success of the Battle of St. Louis book, many were eager to contribute to the new book. It covers all of the expansive events during the war along the Mississippi River, not just at St. Louis. It prompted the development of a museum exhibit based on that book which will open next May in St. Charles County, Missouri. The book release is being held for the exhibit opening. We hope to have all sorts of educational events during the run of the exhibit.

 

 

Lastly, there was quite a bit of research done for The American Revolutionary War in the West book that could not be included as the book was already large (my co-authors in that book did an incredible job). So with Covid delaying the museum exhibit and giving me time at home I launched another book project. I had read Professor Jim Piecuch’s Cavalry of the American Revolution and realized it covered nothing west of the Thirteen Colonies. I contacted Jim who was highly encouraging about my effort to write a new book covering this void. After reading a statement by a historian that there were no mounted units in the French and Indian War, I knew a book covering cavalry during the French and Indian War and in the west during the American Revolutionary War was needed. Plus I already had all of that original primary source research. To cap it all off, both of my parents were avid equestrians and though my talents were more modest, I had a good understanding of horses. My father was a cadet officer in the cavalry troop at a prestigious military academy and my mother competitive jumped horses. So the book became a tool to remember them in their prime. Thus, Cavalry in the Wilderness was born and just released in September of 2021. As with all of my books, it is hardbound with lots of color illustrations and maps both historic and newly commissioned.

 

 

 

 

7 Questions with Dr. Samuel Forman, Author of Ill-Fated Frontier

 

Samuel A. Forman is an historian, Harvard University faculty member, and businessman. He is educated in the history of the American Revolution as well as the practice of clinical and preventive medicine. Throughout his successful careers as physician, military officer and businessman, he has published and lectured on historical topics that inform current issues.
Forman’s ambitious debut was the award winning non-fiction American Founder’s biography Dr. Joseph Warren – The Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill, and the Birth of American Liberty [Pelican, 2012]. His rollicking non-fiction pioneer origin tale of the American West and South during the Revolutionary Era – ‘Ill-Fated Frontier: Peril and Possibilities in the Early American West is due for publication by Lyons Press next year. The book's website includes the author's notes, https://illfatedfrontier.com/end-notes/ .

 

1.          How and when did you get hooked on history?

Growing up in Philadelphia, school trips often included Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell as educational and inspirational destinations practically in our back yard, Early on, I acquired a hands-on and up-close appreciation for our national heritage.

 

2.          What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

I am on a quest to understand what is special about the United States, and to understand both the best of our history and the skeletons rattling in our collective closet. On a personal level, I frequently invoke the experiences and precepts of the Founders. I seek to emulate them at their best.

3.          How does history play a part of your professional life/career?

As an historian, research into primary sources and locations, writing, and scholarly interactions comprise a large part of my activities. I apply the same rigor to accurately ground my histories and insights on a foundation of primary sources and authoritative scholarship, as I do in my roles in the health sector.

4.          Why is studying/knowing history important?

As the old saying goes, you cannot know where you are going if you do not know from whence you came. The historian Santayana had a more practical take on this thought: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

5.          What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

The American Revolutionary Era is my favorite since it is foundational for our country and is relevant to understanding modern controversies. I do like origin stories. This period contains an inordinate number of them.

 

6.         People are probably surprised that the man who wrote a biography of Joseph Warren and a new book about frontier settlement has a background in medicine and is a member of the Environmental Health faculty at Harvard. How does that happen?

Dr. Joseph Warren, the Revolutionary War heroic politician and soldier, was a physician for all but the last two months of a short and eventful life. Warren's medical accounts comprise the largest surviving cache of records he personally wrote, key source material that other biographers can hardly and often erroneously decipher. As someone educated and enthusiastic about the American Revolution and the history of medicine, I realized early on that my background enabled me to be peculiarly well equipped to bring Joseph Warren to a modern audience. I have extended comparable enthusiasm for the era, and rigorous use of archival primary sources, to understand the dynamics between North and South during the pivotal earliest years of our nation. The fact that 'Ill-Fated Frontier' is also a rollicking and true frontier adventure was an added inducement to research and write it.

As a Harvard faculty member, the same high standards of method and writing are expected regardless of departmental affiliation.

7.      Your latest book is Ill-Fated Frontier: Peril and Possibilities in the Early American West. What makes this book and story unique?

On one level it is a rousing, true pioneer and settlement adventure along the very wild Western and Southern frontiers in the earliest years of the Republic, whose key personalities were shaped by their experiences during the Revolutionary War. It includes points of view rarely told in an integrated way - the plantation entrepreneurs, their numerous African American slaves, Indians violently resisting their enterprise, and surprisingly suave and effective Spanish Colonials. At the same time it is story of how North and South are inextricably linked. It foreshadows sectional tensions that persist to the current day.

(Flatboat on the Ohio River, 19th century engraving)

7 Questions with Karen Q, Historical Portrayer, Tour Leader, Historian, and Author

 

    

    Karen Q, aka Karen Quinones, is the founder and historian at Patriot Tours, NYC. Patriot Tours conducts historic walking tours of New York City, focusing on the American Revolution and Founding Era. She's been operating since 2005 and have recently branched out into video tours.

 

    She also appears as an 18^th Century character, “Mrs. Q”, a successful merchant in 18^th Century NYC, at reenactments and conduct specialized tours in character. Mrs. Q live streams Friday nights at 7pm ET on Facebook and YouTube as PatriotToursNYC. She is the author of Theodosia Burr: Teen Witness to the Founding of the New Nation.  The Patriot Tours website is https://patriottoursnyc.com/ ,

YouTube page https://www.youtube.com/c/PatriotToursNYC

1. How and when did you get  hooked on history? 

In my teens, in upstate NY, where I become fascinated with the founding of the small city I grew up in and the families who settled it. That continued and grew as I moved to NYC and became a professional on Wall Street. Every day I passed some of the most historic sites in the city and grew more and more interested in learning about them. Eventually, I left my Wall Street profession and became a full-time historian.

2.          What role does history play or has it played in your personal life? 

All of our family vacations are history vacations! Battlefields, historic sites, everything is about American history. 

3.          How does history play  a part of your professional life/career? 

Patriot Tours NYC is my business and until the pandemic, was highly successful. My Revolutionary War Walking Tour is one of the “must do” things for history buffs visiting NYC. My mission is to teach about the American Revolution and Founding in a way that is exciting, engaging, and fun. I use a unique, structured, story-telling format that unfolds as the tour moves from place to place.

4.          Why is studying/knowing history important? 

Everything we experience in modern life has happened before. The better we understand how those events played out, the decisions people made, and the results of those decisions, the better prepared we are to face challenges in our own lives.

5.          What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why? 

The American Revolution and Founding Period. It is a unique time in human history and especially Western Civilization. Many different things came together to make it happen – from new philosophies of human rights, ideas about government, and economic conditions in the American colonies. It all came together at the right time to cause the founding of a unique nation – the United States of America, with a unique governing Constitution.

6.         How did you get started as Mrs. Q, and what does your New York tour include? 

 I got started in 2002, after I decided to leave the stress of Wall Street.  After three years of research, I launched the Revolutionary War Era Tour of Lower Manhattan. The tour includes a walk through the colonial city, including stops at St. Paul’s Chapel and Graveyard, Trinity Church Graveyard, Federal Hall, Fraunces Tavern, and more. I supplement the tour narration with original prints and documents for everyone to see, to help recreate the time period.   I also have a popular tour about the lives of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr!

7.      You’ve also written Theodosia Burr: Teen Eyewitness to the Founding of a New Nation.  How did you come to choose Theodosia as your subject? 

When researching the private life of Aaron Burr, I became fascinated with his views about women. Mr. Burr was a century ahead of his time, believing that women could achieve the same intellectual goals as men. (His wife was an extraordinarily brilliant, educated, and talented woman.)  Together, they decided their only child, a daughter, would be educated in the manner of a firstborn son – with what was then considered a “masculine” education. Theodosia learned all the subjects a young man would understand, including reading Latin and Greek. The teachers at Princeton College taught her when she became qualified for entrance. Unable to attend in person, the men went to her home in NYC to provide instruction. Theodosia, a young woman, could not be admitted to the college. She was unique in 1790s America. Her experience is fascinating and inspirational to all teenagers struggling to find themselves against the grain of accepted society.

7 Questions with Michael Ruiz, Grisly History Podcaster

 

 Michael Ruiz is a writer and marketing professional based in Atlanta, Georgia. When not working, his hobbies primarily focus on mass communication projects, with production credits on several podcasts as well as writing for stage and film.  In September, he and Graham Parker started the "Grisly History" Podcast.  "Grisly History" is a monthly, long-form podcast. ( https://www.grislyhistory.com/main ) Find it wherever you find podcasts.

 

1. How and when did you get hooked on history?

 

History has always been a part of my upbringing in many ways due to cultural intersections in my childhood home.

 

I was primarily raised by my mother and stepfather, who had two distinctly different cultures. My mother (as I am) is purely Puerto Rican in ethnicity–holding onto that culture tightly and teaching me about my heritage daily, while raising me in Georgia. My stepfather on the other hand was from a proud American military family. He would often share stories of his father quite literally freeing victims of the Holocaust from concentration camps.

 

So, on one hand, I was given this idea of American Exceptionalism, and an ideation on fundamentally “American” values of justice and liberty. But on the other hand, I learned very early on that my own cultural heritage stems from an island nation traded between two larger colonial forces as a result of war. I found myself very conflicted on how to feel on all of this, and I think the time I spent as a kid wrestling on these things instilled a lifelong interest in history and the impact of previous events on our cultures, nations, and ideals. 

 

 

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

 

Building off of what I said as it pertains to my childhood, I think history has really informed my personal feelings of identity, heritage, and culture. I always felt like I was torn between embracing a culture I was raised in but have no blood claim to or embracing a culture I was born from but had no experience with. And I think history helps with these sorts of identity crises because we can see that every nation’s culture and identity is a complex web of international, geographical, or other influence.

 

I think history and the study of it has helped me see a broader picture of the world, which has in turn informed my views on everything from culture to politics. I believe Mark Twain came up with (or popularized) the idea that travel is the death of ignorance, bigotry, or prejudice. And I wholeheartedly agree–but the study of history empowers us to travel without ever leaving our homes. To get those broader experiences under our belts and get out of the narrower mindset that forms by looking only to what you have experienced alone.

 

 

3. How does history play a part of your professional life/career?

 

I have found history to be important in a more subversive manner in my professional life. I work in marketing, so of course much of my work is for an American audience and my knowledge of American history informs that. But my company is very international–we have people from every inhabited continent on our small team. The other day my co-worker asked me to describe “the American culture,” and I found myself continuing to talk about the history of the United States to bolster my views on the subject.

 

 

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?

 

I’ve essentially already said this, but I think history is our window into why people think the way they think, feel the way they feel, vote how they vote, etc.

 

It’s helped me understand the differences between my parents on their own worldviews, for example. And I think, in an increasingly divided age in this country, it’s critical to take a look at those diametrically opposed to you and explore what they were taught and who they were taught by to come to their conclusions. In that same vein, it’s important to take a look at yourself as well.

 

It’s a lot easier to exercise patience with those you may disagree with when you understand they have their own reasonings–possibly very good and valid reasonings–to view things differently than you.

 

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

 

This comes from a biased perspective on my own education, but I love learning about Chinese and Japanese history–particularly leading up to the 20^th century. It’s not something I was taught much in school, and I think in my area, it’s a history very few people explore. Particularly regarding Chinese history, I feel somewhat embarrassed to claim to love history and now produce a history podcast yet know so little about the most populous country in the world.

 

 

6. How did you decide to start the Grisly History podcast and, briefly, what's involved in starting up?

 

Grisly History was Graham Parker’s idea initially, and I think the process of starting it up was mostly focused on figuring out the format, structure, and what we both wanted out of it.

 

Graham and I go back about ten years now, so working together was a no-brainer. But I was really excited about the prospect of getting a history podcast together, as shows like Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History have just amazed me with the scope of the stories and the depth of information shared. I had the technical know-how to put the show together, and Graham had a clear vision for research and development, so the collaboration made a lot of sense.

 

I really enjoy the challenge of it, too. We’re talking about real stories, and real people, so the fidelity to the truth must be the top priority. At the same time, the process of culling through Graham’s research and finding the narrative to tell isn’t easy.

 

As with any show, you must pick and choose your phrasing carefully and determine what gets more or less emphasis in order to fit the time frame and the scope of the work. We’re trying to give an overview that’s faithful to the truth, but clear to those who aren’t familiar with what we’re talking about. It’s a balancing act, but a terrific challenge.

 

 

7. Why should listeners listen to your podcast and what do you think they will take away from it?

 

We want people to learn about history they’ve never heard before. We just finished up our series on the USS Indianapolis, and that’s likely the most “famous” event we’re going to cover for a long time, and even then, we had people contact us to share that they hadn’t even heard of the story beyond “Jaws.”

 

There are so many real-life stories that aren’t taught to us as kids not because of any malicious intent or not because they aren’t interesting, but due to the limitations of what can be taught in a certain time frame. And I think our format focuses on putting humanity back into things–sometimes going into second person to really paint the mental image and showcase that these things really happened.

 

Mostly, I hope that our podcast acts as a conduit for people to begin to research these things as we have and so many others have. It’s a fascinating world out there–always has been. You just have to take the time to learn about it.