Best John Fea Podcasts (2026)

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Episode 130: Hamilton vs. Jefferson in History and Memory 54:28

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21d ago54:28

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Our guest on this episode of the podcast is Jeffrey Rosen, the president of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. He is with us to talk about his more recent book, The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America. In the wake of the American Revolution, Hamilton and Jefferson developed …

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Episode 129: The American Revolution as a World War 46:40

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Most of the stories we will tell about the American Revolution during the nation's 250th anniversary in 2026 will take on a feel of American exceptionalism. They will come mostly from within the geographical bounds of what today is the United States, and most of those stories will concentrate on the eastern seaboard—the so-called "13 colonies." Our…

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Episode 128: Beecherism 59:31

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Many Americans have heard of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. But did you know that her father was a famous evangelist, her brother was "the most famous man in America," and her sister founded the home economics movement? In this episode, we talk with author Obbie Tyler Todd about the Beecher family, one of the most important…

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Episode 127: Phillis Wheatley: A Black Evangelical Poet in Revolutionary America 54:31

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In this episode, we talk with David Waldstreicher, author of the George Washington Prize-winning The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet's Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence. We discuss early American poetry as the eighteenth-century equivalent of pop music and tweeting, the influence of evangelical Christianity on Wheatley's poetry…

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Episode 126: Christianity and Big Time Sports in Modern America 57:16

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In this episode we talk with historian Paul Putz about the history of Christianity and sports in America. This episode is for sports fans, history buffs, and anyone interested in how sports ministries like Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Athletes in Action navigated some of the major social, cultural, and political events of post-World War II …

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Episode 125: Black Evangelicals in American History 49:42

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By John Fea

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Episode 124: Christian Capitalism in Early America 54:40

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In this episode we talk with Wesleyan University historian Joseph Slaughter, author of Faith in Markets: Christian Capitalism in Early America. He offers a new account of the interplay between religion and capitalism in early American history by focusing on 19th-century Protestant entrepreneurs and how they infused faith into their business and, in…

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Episode 123: Drew Gilpin Faust on Growing-Up at Midcentury 44:58

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She was a privileged baby boomer who grew up on a horse farm in segregated Virginia. By her 21st birthday she had worked for peace in Communist Europe, traveled the country in the cause of racial justice, marched for voting rights in Selma, and led anti-Vietnam protests at Bryn Mawr College. Our guest in this episode is distinguished American histo…

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Episode 122: The Metropolitan Sound of the American Century 52:44

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In his new book Bridge & Tunnel Boys, historian Jim Cullen discusses how Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen represented what he calls "the metropolitan sound of the American century." In this episode of the podcast, we talk with Cullen about how Joel and Springsteen were shaped by their lives on the periphery of New York City. Our conversation ranges…

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Episode 121: Reagan's Evangelical Vision for America 54:04

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How did Ronald Reagan use the media to shape his evangelical vision for America, a vision rooted in political freedom, economic freedom, and religious freedom that is still with us today and continues to define the discourse of both of our political parties? In this episode we talk to Diane Winston, the Knight Chair in Media and Religion at the Uni…

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Episode 120: Popular Historians in Post-War America 1:03:10

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Should professional historians write for the general public? If so, who is the "public" they are trying to reach? And when historians do write for the public how do they manage to make their work readable and accessible without sacrificing scholarly integrity? What role does politics, and even activism, play in popular history writing? These are qu…

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Episode 119: How the Social Gospel Undermined Social Democracy 58:25

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There was a profound difference between Christian Socialism and the so-called "Social Gospel." Janine Giordano Drake explains these differences in her new book The Gospel of Church: How Mainline Protestants Vilified Christian Socialism and Fractured the Labor Movement. Drake argues that Protestant reformers associated with Mainline Protestantism an…

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Episode 118: Evangelicals and the Environment 57:53

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Most Americans probably think of conservative evangelicals as climate change deniers who believe global warming is a hoax. If this is you, you would not be entirely wrong. But our guest today, Neill Pogue, author of The Nature of the Religious Right: The Struggle Between Conservative Evangelicals and the Environmental Movement, suggests that this s…

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Episode 117: The Idea of Fraternity in America 50:11

2+ y ago50:11

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What is fraternity? Our guest today, political scientist Susan McWilliams Barndt, discusses her father's 1973 magnum opus The Idea of Fraternity in America. We talk about the work of Wilson Carey McWilliams, the historical context in which he wrote his magisterial work of political theory and history, and why we still need his ideas today. The Idea…

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Episode 116: Historical Thinking for a Democracy 51:59

2+ y ago51:59

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If you've listened to this podcast over the years you know that we champion "historical thinking" as one of our best hopes for sustaining and preserving American democratic life. In this episode we talk with Zachary Cote, the Executive Director of THINKING NATION, a non-profit organization devoted to helping K-12 social studies students mature into…

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Episode 115: Evangelicalism: Its Metaphors and Stories 48:31

2+ y ago48:31

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What is American evangelicalism? In her new book The Evangelical Imagination, Karen Swallow Prior, one of the most careful observers of, and participants in, evangelical life, analyses the literature, art, and popular culture that has surrounded the movement and unpacks some of its most deeply held concepts, ideas, values, and practices. Our conver…

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Episode 114: How Slavery Helped Grow the American Catholic Church 46:14

2+ y ago46:14

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Did you know the Jesuits were some of the largest slaveholders in colonial America? Our guest in this episode is Rachel L. Swarns, author of The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved And Sold to Build the American Catholic Church. We discuss the Jesuit's 1838 sale of 272 men, women and children for the purpose of saving Georgetown University and the …

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Episode 113: The "Jesus Revolution" 54:24

2+ y ago54:24

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In this episode we talk to historian Larry Eskridge about the film "Jesus Revolution." Eskridge, the author of God's Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America, places the film in context, discusses the legacy of the Jesus People Movement for contemporary evangelicalism, and tells us a bit about his own experience with the movement. If yo…

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Episode 112: The Search for God in a New York Publishing House 49:55

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Have you ever heard someone say that they were "spiritual," but not "religious?" Our guest in this episode, Stephen Prothero, offers a "pre-history" of this idea. According to Prothero, the move from traditional/institutional/confessional "religion" to seeker "spirituality" runs through the Eugene Exman, the religion editor at Harper Brothers from …

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Episode 111: The Evangelical Battle Over the End Times 1:11:20

2+ y ago1:11:20

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If you want to learn more about the evangelical fascination with the rapture, Israel, the antichrist, and the prophetic books of the Bible you will enjoy this episode. Our guest is Daniel Hummel, author of The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism: How the Evangelical Battle Over the End Times Shaped a Nation. We talk with Dan about John Nelson Darby,…

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Episode 110: "How Black Ball Saved the Soul of the NBA" 1:04:39

2+ y ago1:04:39

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The National Basketball Association is a multi-billion-dollar industry driven by Black athletes with global influence. But as our guest Theresa Runstedtler argues, the success of today's NBA players rests on the labor activism of 1970s NBA stars who fought with owners for economic control over their labor and a Black style of hoops born in the play…

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Episode 109: The Voice and Faith of Sojourner Truth 1:18:22

3y ago1:18:22

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In this episode we talk with historian and biographer Nancy Koester about her new book on nineteenth-century abolitionist and women's rights advocate Sojourner Truth. Our discussion focuses on Truth's lifelong pursuit of a just society, a deeper knowledge of God, and a sense of community for her and her family. Koester's book is titled We Will Be F…

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Episode 108: The Life and Legacy of C. Vann Woodward 1:01:14

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In this episode we explore the life, ideas, and writings of one of the 20th-century most influential American historians--C. Vann Woodward, author of The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Our guest is James Cobb, author if C. Vann Woodward: America's Historian. In our conversation we discuss Woodward's liberalism and how he balanced historical writing wi…

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Episode 107: The Politics of Smallpox in Revolutionary America 1:03:14

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The American revolution happened in the midst of a smallpox epidemic. In one of the timeliest history books of the publishing season, historian Andrew Wehrman visits the podcast to talk about what the patriots of the American Revolution and the founding fathers thought about public health. His book Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in …

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Episode 106: Bruce Springsteen's "Long Walk Home" 53:03

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In this episode we chat with historian Jonathan Cohen about his edited collection Long Walk Home: Reflections on Bruce Springsteen and the current state of "Springsteen Studies." Is there any connection between Cohen's current book, For a Dollar and A Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America, and his work on Springsteen? Learn more about your ad ch…

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Episode 105: "Heathenism" in America 47:23

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According to historian Kathryn Gin Lum, Americans have long viewed the world as a realm of suffering heathens whose lands and lives needed their intervention to flourish. The term "heathen" fell out of common use by the early 1900s, but the ideas underlying the figure of the heathen did not disappear. Americans still treat large swaths of the world…

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Episode 104: The Roots of American Public Education 1:11:10

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Are you an educator? An administrator? A school board member? Does your life intersect in some way with a public school? If so, this episode is for you. We talk about the religion and transatlantic roots of American public education with historian David Komline, author of The Common School Awakening: Religion and the Transatlantic Roots of American…

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Episode 103: Spiritual Socialists 57:04

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Does the American Left have religion problem? What can progressives learn from people like Dorothy Day, Ignazio Silone, Henry Wallace, Staughton Lynd, and Cornell West? Many of these thinkers and activists offered a powerful vision for a moral and just society--challenging conservatives, liberals, and Marxists to think differently about the world. …

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Episode 102: The Ghosts of Colonial Williamsburg 1:03:33

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Our guest on this episode, public historian Alena Pirok, explains how John D. Rockefeller's vision of Colonial Williamsburg eventually gave way to a vision of the site championed by an early 20th century clergyman who saw ghosts. Join us for a conversion on Pirok's new book, The Spirit of Colonial Williamsburg: Ghosts and Interpreting the Recreated…

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Episode 101: "Exhibiting Evangelicalism" 1:00:59

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Have you visited the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C.? How about the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina? In this episode, historian Devin Manzullo-Thomas, author of Exhibiting Evangelicalism: Commemoration and Religion's Presence of the Past, helps us make sense of these sites of evangelical heritage. Learn more about your ad c…

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Episode 100: Christian Historians as Activists? 1:08:04

3+ y ago1:08:04

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In this episode, our 100th, host John Fea delivers his 2022 Conference on Faith and History presidential address. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesBy John Fea

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Episode 99: Historicizing the Search for Roots 1:08:16

3+ y ago1:08:16

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Do you do genealogical research? In this episode, historian Francesca Morgan talks about her new book A Nation of Descendants: Politics and the Practice of Genealogy in U.S. History. She discusses Americans' fascination with tracking family lineage through three centuries and how the practice has intersected with race, class, religion, and commerci…

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Episode 98: Conversions: Spiritual and Political 57:15

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What do Sammy Davis Jr., Muhammad Ali, Clare Booth Luce, Whitaker Chambers, and Charles Colson all have in common? They all had very public religious conversions. In this episode, historian Rebecca Davis joins us to talk about her new book Public Confessions: The Religious Conversions That Changed Politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit p…

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Episode 97: In Search of George Washington's Hair 57:01

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Using America's obsession with Washington's hair as his window, historian Keith Beutler examines how "physicality," or the use of the material objects, was the most important way early Americans (1790-1840)--museum founders, African Amerians, evangelicals, and school teachers-- remembered the nation's founding. Beutler is the author of George Washi…

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Episode 96: Thinking Historically about the Russian Invasion of Ukraine 43:37

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In this episode we talk with historian Bruce Berglund about Vladmir Putin's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Our conversation focuses on Putin's use of history to justify the invasion, the insufficiency of the Russian military, the international ban on Russian athletics, and the role that race has played in the invasion. Learn more about your …

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Episode 95: The Lost Promise of American Universities 1:17:42

4y ago1:17:42

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American universities entered the 1960s with the hope of bringing a high-quality system of universal higher education to all comers. But by the early 1970s hope turned to despair as universities gave way to neoliberalism, corporatism, and a powerful conservative backlash. In this episode we talk with historian Ellen Schrecker about her new book The…

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Episode 94: Gettysburg, 1963 1:07:17

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Our guest in this episode is Gettysburg College historian Jill Ogline Titus. Her new book, Gettysburg 1963, tells the story of the centennial celebration of the Civil War in the Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg. Through an examination of the experiences of political leaders, civil rights activists, preservation-minded Civil War enthusiasts, and resi…

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Episode 93: A Story of Faith and Conspiracy in Revolutionary America 55:10

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Less than a year after the American Revolution, a group of North Carolina farmers hatched a plot to assassinate the colony's leading patriots, including the governor. In this episode, Boston University historian Brendan McConville talks about the Gourd Patch Conspiracy. The catalysts of this movement were "The Brethren," a group of Protestants who …

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Episode 92: Original Sin and the History of American Democracy 57:50

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Our guest in this episode is historian Robert Tracy McKenzie, author of We the Fallen the People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy. In the spirit of the 20th-century theologian and ethicist Reinhold Niebuhr, McKenzie places the Christian doctrine of original sin at the center of early American political history. He believes that we…

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Episode 91: Providential History and the Pacific Northwest 1:02:35

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Did Marcus Whitman "save" Oregon? In this episode we talk with Sarah Koenig, author ofProvidence and the Invention of American History. She tells the story of a Protestant missionary to the Pacific Northwest and how his story provides a window into debates over the meaning of the past in both the 19th-century and today. Learn more about your ad cho…

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Episode 90: "The Gospel According to Charles Lindbergh" 1:03:41

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Charles Lindbergh was a celebrated aviator, the father of the baby abducted in the "crime of the century," a Nazi sympathizer, and a believer in eugenics. He also carried a small New Testament with him as he entered the South Pacific theatre of World War II and offered a spiritual critique of technological progress. Our guest in this episode is Chr…

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Episode 89: The Heretical John C. Calhoun 1:02:30

4+ y ago1:02:30

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John C. Calhoun is among the most notorious and enigmatic figures in American political history. In this episode we talk with Robert Elder, author of Calhoun: American Heretic. Elder shows that Calhoun's story is crucial for understanding the political climate in which we find ourselves today. If we excise him from the mainstream of American histor…

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Episode 88: History Education on the Great Plains 54:29

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In this episode we talk with Nathan McAlister, Humanities Program Manager at the Kansas State Department of Education in Topeka. When it comes to history education, Kansas is doing it the right way. Join us for a wide-ranging discussion on civics, historical thinking, social studies standards, and the controversial debates over race in the American…

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Episode 87: Religion and the American Revolution 53:23

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In her new book Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History, historian Katherine Carte offers a major reassessment of the relationship between Christianity and the American Revolution. She argues that religion helped set the terms by which Anglo-Americans encountered the imperial crisis and the war and how Protestants on both sides of…

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Episode 86: A Conversation with Eric Miller, Editor of Current 1:00:15

4+ y ago1:00:15

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In this episode we introduce Current, a new online platform of commentary and opinion that provides daily reflection on contemporary culture, politics, and ideas. Editor Eric Miller talks aboutCurrent's vision, some of his favorite articles, and the history of the "little magazine" in American literary culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Vis…

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Episode 85: Reckoning with Confederate Monuments 52:13

4+ y ago52:13

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Historian Karen Cox argues that "when it comes to Confederate monuments, there is no common ground." In this episode, we talk with Cox about the history of Confederate monuments and how the recent racial unrest in the United States have made these monuments a subject of national conversation. Her book is titled No Common Ground: Confederate Monumen…

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Episode 84: "How 'Biblical Womanhood' Became Gospel Truth'" 59:39

4+ y ago59:39

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What can a medieval historian teach us about the role of women in twenty-first century evangelicalism? A lot! In this episode we talk to historian Beth Allison Barr about her book The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth. Join us for a wide-ranging conversation on historical thinking, biblical interpretatio…

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Episode 83: Celebrity in the Early American Republic 1:06:12

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In this episode we talk with Carolyn Eastman, author of The Strange Genius of Mr. O: The World of the United States' First Forgotten Celebrity. Eastman chronicles the life of James Ogilvie, an itinerant orator who became one of the most famous men in America in the years between 1809 and 1817. Ogilvie's career features many of the hallmarks of cele…

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Episode 82: The Fastest Game in the World 1:17:35

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Ice hockey is now a global sport. Even Brazil, Mexico, Jamaica, and Australia have national teams. The National Hockey League has teams in Miami, Tampa Bay, Dallas, Nashville, and Phoenix. Junior league hockey is played in Shreveport and Amarillo. Anyone who wants to understand hockey today must not only tell a story about skates, rinks, sticks and…

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Episode 81: God's Law and Order 1:17:31

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On June 1, 2020, Donald Trump declared himself a "law and order" president and marched to historic St. John's Church for a photo-op with a Bible. Our guest in this episode, historian Aaron Griffith, helps us understand why evangelicals cheered this moment. Join us for a conversation on evangelicalism, crime, and mass incarceration with the author o…