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The Road to Now is a history podcast that explains the story behind important events and outstanding individuals of today's world. Created in 2016 by Dr. Benjamin Sawyer and Bob Crawford, a founding member of the Grammy-nominated band The Avett Brothers, The Road to Now has brought historians, politicians, journalists and artists to the table for conversations that illuminate the map that brought us to where we are today.
Subscribe to The Road to Now on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, and anywhere podcasts are available. Don't have a podcast app? You can listen right on your computer and smart phone on our episode page by clicking play at the top of the page.
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If you have any questions or show suggestions, please write to us at roadtonowcast@gmail.com.
Thanks for joining us on the road,
Ben Sawyer and Bob Crawford
Latest Episodes
Laughing at Stalin: The Politics of Humor w/ Jon Waterlow (#107 Rebroadcast)
July 26, 2021No commentBob and Ben speak with Jon Waterlow about his book It’s Only a Joke Comrade! Humor, Trust and Everyday Life Under Stalin and the role 
humor plays in helping humans make sense of the world in even the darkest times. Jon also shares his take on humor’s role in politics under Stalin and today, the process he went through to uncover these jokes, and how the artistic technique of crosshatching helps us understand what it was like to live under the Stalinist system. He also discusses his decision to forego publishing his book with an academic publisher and why he decided to leave a bright future in the academy to purse fulfillment elsewhere.
Dr. Jonathan Waterlow received his Doctorate in History from the University of Oxford and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at St. Anthony’s College (Oxford) and the University of Toronto. He is also the cohost of the Voices in the Dark podcast, which is available anywhere you get The Road to Now.
This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.
This episode is a rebroadcast of RTN #107, which originally aired on October 1, 2018.
A Tour Guide’s History of Los Angeles (#202)
July 19, 2021No commentMillions of people from across the globe visit Los Angeles every year, but only a lucky few have gotten a tour of the city from tour guides/stand up comics, Rivers Langley, Anna Valenzuela & Carter Glascock. In this episode, Ben speaks with Rivers, Carter and Anna about their favorite stories from Los Angeles’ history, what it’s like to work as a tour guide, and what makes a good (and bad) day at work.
Carter Glascock is stand up comic and co-host of The Goods From The Woods Podcast. His first album, The Crystal Pistol is available on Spotify and Apple Music. You can follow him on twitter at @carter_glascock.
Rivers Langley is a LA-based stand-up comedian and host of The Goods From The Woods Podcast. You can also find him announcing the matches at Wrestling Pro Wrestling. You can follow him on twitter at @RiversLangley.
Anna Valenzuela is a comic, writer and host of the podcast 12 Questions. whose appearances include Comedy Central’s Roast Battle. You can follow her on twitter at @annavisfun.
This episode was mixed by Rivers Langley and edited by Gary Fletcher.
Bonus Links:
How the American Dream Became Temporary w/ Louis Hyman (Rebroadcast of RTN 103)
July 12, 2021No comment
Coffee With The Avett Brothers (Expanded Rebroadcast)
June 28, 2021No commentThis is an expanded rebroadcast of episode 72, which originally aired on September 25, 2017. In this episode of The Road to Now, we sit down for coffee and conversation with Bob’s bandmates in The Avett Brothers for a discussion about art, technology, and challenges of creativity. We cover the historic relationship between genius and madness, the ways one’s self is reflected in what we create, and the how they’ve adapted to the changes that have come their way since they began playing music. The Avett Brothers was the nexus that brought Bob and Ben together in creating The Road to Now, so we’re really excited to bring it all together and share this conversation with our listeners. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.
Reaganland w/ Rick Perlstein (RTN #199)
June 14, 2021No commentThe Republican Party of today may look a lot different than it did just a decades ago, but it rests on many of the same organizations and ideologies that formed the modern conservative movement in the 1970s. In this episode, Rick Perlstein joins us for a conversation about his newest book Reaganland: America’s Right Turn, 1976-1980 and how Ronald Reagan, Orrin Hatch and other prominent Republicans were able to harness the social and political forces of the 1970s to form the modern GOP.
Rick Perlstein is the award-winning author of multiple New York Times bestsellers, including Reaganland (Simon & Schuster, 2020), Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (Scribner, 2009) and Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (Bold Type Books, 2009), as well as a board member at InTheseTimes.com. You can follow him on twitter at @RickPerlstein.
In this conversation we also discussed Rick’s recent article “This Is Us: Why the Trump Era Ended in Violence,” The New Republic, January 20, 2021.
This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.
The Road to Now is hosted by Bob Crawford (The Avett Brothers/Press On Fund), & Dr. Benjamin Sawyer (Middle Tennessee State University).
Energy Crises: A Half-Century of Hard Choices w/ Jay Hakes (RTN #197)
May 17, 2021No commentSince the OPEC oil embargo of 1973, policy makers have had to make hard choices to ensure that American citizens can access the cheap and plentiful energy to which we have become accustomed. Although the US has returned to a position of energy independence
in recent years, a variety of problems, from climate change to cyberterrorism, mean the hard choices are far from over. In this episode, Bob & Ben speak with Dr. Jay Hakes about his new book Energy Crises: Nixon, Ford, Carter and Hard Choices in the 1970s (University of Oklahoma Press, 2021) and what the decisions of the past can teach us as we deal with the crises of today.
Dr. Jay Hakes is a Presidential & energy historian with a long history of working on energy issues, including as Administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration during the Clinton administration and as Director for Research and Policy for President Obama’s BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Commission. He also served for thirteen years as the Director of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. For more about his life and work, visit his website: www.JayHakes.com
This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.
194 The Rise and Fall of the American Suburbs w/ Kyle Riismandel
April 12, 2021No comment
In the years after World War II, Americans moved to the suburbs in search of the peace and safety that many came to equate with the “American Dream.” By the end of the 1970s, however, suburbanites had come sense that their privileged was under siege from satanic cults, drug dealers and kidnappers. In this episode, Bob and Ben talk w/ Kyle Riismandel whose new book Neighborhood of Fear examines how Americans responded to the real and perceived threats of suburban life and in doing so, shaped American society and politics in the late-20th Century and beyond.
Dr. Kyle Riismandel is Senior University Lecturer and Interim Director of the Law, Technology, and Culture Program 
in the Federated Department of History at the New Jersey Institute of Technology/Rutgers-Newark. His new book Neighborhood of Fear: The Suburban Crisis in American Culture, 1975-2001 was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2020. You can follow him on twitter at @AccusedWizard.
Check out Kyle's playlists for the book:
YouTube playlist featuring clips, newscasts, documentaries, movie trailers, and other videos cited or inspired by Neighborhood of Fear.
Spotify playlist featuring songs inspired by or cited in Neighborhood of Fear.
(featuring news clips on topics from the book) and Spotify (featuring music of the era).
This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.
The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network.Featured Guests
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