Best The Urban Historian Podcasts (2025)

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#1670 Paddling the Full Lewis and Clark Trail 54:35

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1d ago54:35

54:35

Clay interviews Montana adventurer Norm Miller, who has undertaken truly heroic canoe and kayak journeys on great rivers of the West. When he was 35, he retraced Scottish trader Alexander Mackenzie’s 1789 2,000-mile journey from Lake Athabasca to the Arctic Ocean. When he was 41, during the Bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition, Norm float…

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Episode 308: Meandering Marketplaces in Urban Charleston, 1794–1805 25:30

5d ago25:30

25:30

Following the conversion of the city’s new Beef Market into a dormitory in the autumn of 1793, the business of vending fresh provisions in Charleston meandered across the urban landscape for more than a decade. The older marketplaces in Tradd and Queen Streets absorbed most of the central-city commerce, while residents of peripheral neighborhoods b…

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S2. S6. Night at the Baths 59:50

8d ago59:50

59:50

Disco didn't just happen—it emerged from the vibrant gay club scene of 1970s New York City. In this episode, hosts Ryan Purcell and Kristie Soares explore how iconic venues like the Continental Baths, the Mineshaft sex club, and the legendary Paradise Garage became part of a musical revolution that transformed popular culture. Joining them is Lucas…

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#1669 A Conversation About Political Violence in America 56:20

9d ago56:20

56:20

In the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk in Utah, Clay asked his good friend Beau Breslin of Skidmore College to join him in a conversation about political violence in America. Political violence is nothing new in America. We were born in an armed revolution, we’ve had waves of political violence throughout our history, and we seem as …

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#1668 Bittersweet Homecoming 53:23

16d ago53:23

53:23

Clay talks about his 2025 trek across America in his 23-foot Airstream following the Lewis and Clark trail. Clay discusses RV life and provides a sense of what a day in the life of an RV drifter is like. Clay also speaks about his intensive study of the journals of Lewis and Clark and the book he is developing, tentatively titled Getting Noticed on…

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Church Art & Woke Modernism! STEVE AUTH, Art Historian, Author & Wall Street businessman, examines centuries of uplifting & sacred Church art —& the powerful forces that eventually held it back 59:56

21d ago59:56

59:56

In Visions of the Divine (Sophia Institute Press), Catholic evangelist, author, and a top Wall Street executive STEPHEN F. AUTH, reunites the art of the Eucharist with the Eucharistic liturgy itself. Much splendid art adorns and magnificently beautifies Churches throughout the globe, a phenomenathat came under great stress during the Reformation, a…

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Episode 307: The Refugees in Market Street, 1793 25:33

19d ago25:33

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The legal foundation of Market Street, created in 1788, dissolved in 1793 when the City of Charleston scrambled to address a refugee crisis that shocked the community. Few in the Palmetto City today recall how a revolutionary struggle for civil rights in the Caribbean island of Hispaniola sparked a bloody insurrection that forced thousands of Frenc…

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S2. S5. From Stonewall to Studio 54 47:33

22d ago47:33

47:33

In the fifth episode of Season Two of Soundscapes NYC, hosts Ryan Purcell and Kristie Soares sit down with the legendary DJ Nicky Siano. The history of dance music in 1970s New York is synonymous with the life and work of Siano. He was among the early attendees of David Mancuso’s Loft dances, where he learned to organize parties and DJ for an audie…

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#1667 Lunch With America’s Leading Steinbeck Scholar 50:49

22d ago50:49

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Clay and his friend Russ Eagle interview Robert DeMott, one of the greatest living Steinbeck scholars, at his fishing cabin on the Madison River, south of Bozeman, Montana. DeMott is the author of three important studies of Steinbeck’s novels, the editor of the journal he kept while writing his classic, The Grapes of Wrath, and also the editor of t…

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#1666 Ten Books on the American Revolution 54:08

29d ago54:08

54:08

Frequent guest, Lindsay Chervinsky, makes a late summer appearance to discuss Ten Books on the American Revolution. Ken Burns recently said the American Revolution was the most important event since the birth of Jesus. Our listeners have asked for advice about what to read as July 4, 2026, looms over American life. Lindsay is current with recent sc…

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S2.E4. Disco's "Latin Tinge" 1:01:02

1M ago1:01:02

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In the 1930s, musician Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton identified the influence of Latin American rhythms like the habanera in jazz, as a sonic “tinge” that fundamentally shaped his style as a stride pianist. In the Seventies, disco presented its own Latin tinge. The Latin American and Latino influence on 1970s New York disco extended far beyond the …

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#1665 Jefferson and Madison on Vacation 50:33

1M ago50:33

50:33

Clay's conversation with historian Louis Masur about his new book A Journey North: Jefferson, Madison, & the Forging of a Friendship. In 1791, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison went on a monthlong tour of New England. They were weary from their struggles with Alexander Hamilton for the soul of America. They needed a vacation, but as exemplars of t…

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Episode 306: The Genesis of Market Street, 1783–1789 26:19

1M ago26:19

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Market Street and its venerable public buildings exemplify the spirit of preservation and resilience in modern Charleston, but forgotten details of the site’s creation in the late eighteenth century shroud a troubled genesis. The city’s broadest thoroughfare was mostly underwater during its early years, and the site’s first edifice sheltered butche…

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#1664 The Rivers of the Lewis and Clark Expedition 54:48

1M ago54:48

54:48

Clay and his good friend Russ Eagle discuss the rivers Lewis and Clark traveled from Pittsburgh to the Pacific Ocean, including the Ohio, the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Clearwater, the Snake, and the Columbia. The paradox of Clay’s 2025 Airstream journey along the Lewis and Clark Trail is that they floated America’s rivers, and Clay has been dr…

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S2.E3. A Spatial History of Disco 1:14:07

2M ago1:14:07

1:14:07

In the third episode of Season Two of Soundscapes NYC, hosts Ryan Purcell and Kristie Soares take you on an immersive journey through the hot nights and wild streets of Lower Manhattan during the Seventies. For this episode, Jesse Rifkin, a New York-based music historian and the owner and sole operator of Walk on the Wild Side Tours NYC, designed a…

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#1663 Presidential Finances 53:57

2M ago53:57

53:57

Clay interviews Megan Gorman, the author of the excellent new book, All the President’s Money: How the Men who Governed America Governed their Money. Gorman is a nationally respected money manager for some of the wealthiest Americans. She thought it would be interesting to explore the way American presidents have handled their finances, before, dur…

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Episode 305: The Waterfront Markets of Colonial Charleston 31:34

2M ago31:34

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In the spring of 1751, Governor James Glen described the Cooper River as “a kind of floating market,” hosting “numbers of canoes boats and pettyaguas that ply incessantly, bringing down the country produce to town.” In today’s Time Machine, let’s follow those watercraft to a series of market sites along the Charleston waterfront and explore the dai…

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#1662 Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail 53:28

2M ago53:28

53:28

Clay’s conversation with Claire Martin, who hiked the entire Pacific Crest Trail in 2020, more than 2,400 miles through some of the most rugged landscapes in America. Claire was a 2018 graduate of Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia. Without quite knowing why, she set out for the Mexican border with a 35-pound pack and began the long journey …

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Filmmaker JIMMY MORRISON reveals globe's grim, mad EVERYTHING FINANCIAL BUBBLE in documentary series with icons RON PAUL, JIM ROGERS, MARC FABER, PETER SCHIFF, DOUG CASEY, JIM GRANT, DAVID STOCKMAN.. 1:02:48

2M ago1:02:48

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Jimmy Morrison co-wrote and directed the award-winning documentary The Housing Bubble with NY Times bestselling author Tom Woods. The film still holds the attendance record at the Anthem Film Festival after over 300 people spilled into the hallway at the premiere. Jimmy drove over 35,000 miles shooting interviews with people that predicted the cras…

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S2.E2. Lost Women of Disco 49:47

2M ago49:47

49:47

Women have been central to the evolution of dance music culture since its earliest days, yet their contributions have often been overlooked. From Régine Zylberberg's pioneering work in creating the modern discotheque in 1950s Paris to Sharon White's trailblazing presence at New York's legendary venues in the 1970s, female DJs have shaped dance floo…

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#1661 Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a New Constitution for the United States 55:36

2M ago55:36

55:36

Frequent guest Beau Breslin of Skidmore College and one of his prize students, Prairie Gunnels, talk about a capstone project for Beau’s Introduction to American Politics Course, in which students used the AI tool, ChatGPT, to write a new constitution for each of the seven generations that now share American soil. Professor Breslin is fully aware o…

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#1660 Ten Things: The Real Patrick Henry (Live) 50:35

2M ago50:35

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Clay’s conversation with popular guest Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky on Patrick Henry. Henry began his life as a shopkeeper but rose to become the governor of Virginia and one of the handful of most essential rabble-rousers in the American Revolution. Henry and Jefferson were frenemies; at one point, Jefferson (the Deist) said to his friend Madison, “We m…

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Episode 304: The Rise of Asphalt Roadways in Twentieth-Century Charleston 26:50

2M ago26:50

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Modern travelers across the city and county of Charleston roll across a continuous ribbon of asphalt that facilitates an expanding cycle of population growth and cultural diversity. The roots of this blacktop conveyor belt extend back more than century, when a series of obscure political changes unleashed an unprecedented burst of infrastructure de…

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S2.E1. Love Saves the Day 59:37

3M ago59:37

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The Loft was a dance party series organized by DJ David Mancuso in his Manhattan warehouse apartment at 647 Broadway from Valentine’s Day 1970 to June 1974. The parties offered an alternative to New York’s commercial nightclub scene. The invitation-only events featured an egalitarian space for music and dance with a top-of-the-line sound system, ec…

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#1659 Theodore Roosevelt in Grand Canyon Country 55:47

3M ago55:47

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Clay’s conversation with Harvey Leake, the great-grandson of the pioneering southwestern archaeologists John and Louisa Wetherill. Harvey tells the story of former President Theodore Roosevelt’s 1913 visit to the Four Corners region. First, TR and his sons Archie, age 19, Quentin, age 15, and their cousin Nicholas Roosevelt, age 20, rode through th…

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#1658 Jay Carson, Boulder Outdoor Survival School and National Service 55:43

3M ago55:43

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Clay’s interview with Jay Carson, the executive director of the Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS), located in remote Boulder, Utah. Jay Carson had a long and successful political career, including stints with Chuck Schumer, Howard Dean, and Bill Bradley. Jay has also had a successful career as a Hollywood screenwriter. But his life changed whe…

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Episode 303: The Granite Roadways of Gilded-Age Charleston 23:48

3M ago23:48

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During the twilight years of the nineteenth century, radical changes to local thoroughfares helped the City of Charleston evolve from a declining seaport into a tidy modern metropolis. Uniform blocks of durable granite displaced most of the city’s lumpy cobblestone streets during the 1880s, after which the municipal government achieved mixed result…

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EXCLUSIVE: Famed Wall Street vet DICK BOVE on Fall of Financial System, Rise of Crypto, Dollar Collapse, Trump $ Musk, Surging Money Supply, What's REALLY Driving Stock Market. Plus, BOVE 's next book 1:03:51

3M ago1:03:51

1:03:51

In a rare interview since he officially retired last year after a distinguished 54 year career on Wall Street, DICK BOVE, 84, spells out his concerns for the US and global financial system. "I think the financial system of the US has lost its footing," BOVE says in the interview, breaking his silence since his retirement. "I think as this becomes m…

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#1657 Race in America: A Retrospective 53:14

3M ago53:14

53:14

Clay’s conversation with Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander, professor of history at Norfolk State University in Virginia, about the status of race relations in America as we approach our 250th birthday. How should we read Thomas Jefferson's great sentence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”? Did Jefferson mean wha…

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#1656 A Conversation with Novelist Anne Hillerman 52:15

3M ago52:15

52:15

Clay interviews the southwestern crime novelist Anne Hillerman, now publishing her 10th novel about crime-solving in the land of the Navajo in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado. Anne is the daughter of the acclaimed and bestselling Tony Hillerman, who wrote 19 novels before he died in 2008. Anne decided to carry on the tradition, and her succ…

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#1655 Clay and Lindsay Live: Religious Freedom 51:37

4M ago51:37

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Clay’s live conversation with Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky on Religious Freedom. Clay and Lindsay met in person at The Historic Christ Church and Museum in Weems, Virginia to discuss the history of religous freedom in the United States. They talk about how many Presidents have shared the faith, why there was an effort to separate the church and state fro…

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#1654 Wandering In Canyon Country — A Conversation with Craig Childs 56:58

4M ago56:58

56:58

Clay’s conversation with writer Craig Childs of western Colorado. Childs is the author of more than a dozen books about America’s backcountry. He’s spent months, even years, exploring the Grand Canyon and a hundred lesser but magnificent canyons in desert country. Childs has been a river runner, a guide, and a consultant, but mostly, he is a writer…

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Episode 302: Reconstructing the Streets of Post-Civil War Charleston 25:41

4M ago25:41

25:41

Amidst the financial doldrums that followed the American Civil War, Charlestonians struggled to reconstruct their politics, rebuild their economy, and repair a neglected streetscape. Budget constraints compelled officials of the late 1860s and 1870s to perpetuate old-fashioned paving habits and to recycle outdated materials, but a few novel additio…