Avi's Conversational Corner
A podcast on culture, history, and politics in a broad perspective
About the show
Welcome! Here I will talk to a range of people on issues which interest me and I hope you, from religious slogans and wargaming to deeper political ideas to forgotten historical episodes. Bring up a chair, get comfortable, and enjoy!
- Avi
Episodes
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Episode 58 (Stumbling Colossus, 33): Brother, Can You Spare A Dime (Novel)?
August 14th, 2023 | 38 mins 29 secs
Award winning author Matthew Kerns talks about the origins, popularity, mythology, and legacy of the dime novel, America's proto-comic book.
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Episode 57 (Stumbling Colossus, 32): A Glorious and Terrible Aftermath – The Grand Army of the Republic and Civil War Veterans in the Gilded Age
July 3rd, 2023 | 37 mins 22 secs
Prof. Barbara Gannon breaks down the role of the largest Civil War veterans association in commemorating the past, helping veterans in the present, and its place in America's future generations.
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Episode 56 (Stumbling Colossus, 31): Electing The Gilded Age Senate – Corrupt Bargain or Anti-Populist Bulwark?
June 26th, 2023 | 29 mins 57 secs
Professor Wendy Schiller discusses the good and the bad of how Senators were chosen before and after the 17th amendment to the constitution creating direct election of Senators.
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Episode 55 (Stumbling Colossus, 30): Anthony Comstock’s Crusade Against Lust – Doomed Madness or Moral Heroism?
May 29th, 2023 | 40 mins 50 secs
I discuss the life and work of one of America's most energetic - and controversial - moralizing crusaders.
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Episode 53 (Stumbling Colossus, 29): Protecting American Industry – Vital Lifeline or Political Racket?
May 1st, 2023 | 24 mins 30 secs
Prof. Douglas Irwin discusses the politics and economics of American trade policy in the Gilded Age.
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Episode 52 (Stumbling Colossus, 28): Let's Put on a Show, or Gilded Age Vaudeville
April 24th, 2023 | 33 mins 16 secs
Cultural polymath Trav S.D. discusses the rise, fall, and importance of vaudeville as one of America's great forms of entertainment and enterprise.
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Episode 52 (Stumbling Colossus, 27): Henry George: Prophet of American Modernity
March 28th, 2023 | 56 mins 45 secs
Lars Doucet discusses the history and practice of one of the great pioneers of governing ideas in the American Gilded Age.
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Episode 51 (Stumbling Colossus, 26): The Ever Closing Frontier
March 20th, 2023 | 45 mins 24 secs
Western Historian Prof. David Wrobel discusses the ways in which Americans understood and shaped the American frontier, and how they reacted when they thought it physically "closed."
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Episode 50: Why I Love History
March 14th, 2023 | 23 mins 48 secs
A conversation with myself about why I do this.
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Episode 49 (Stumbling Colossus, 25): The Last Lincoln Republican?
February 13th, 2023 | 58 mins 44 secs
Dr. Todd Arrington discusses the life and lost potential of James Garfield, the assassinated President who won the 1880 election.
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Episode 48: Everett Dirksen's Republicanism
February 6th, 2023 | 37 mins 7 secs
Dirksen Center Director Tiffany White talks about the personality and politics of one of the most pivotal Republican legislators of the 1950s and 1960s.
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Episode 47 (Stumbling Colossus, 24): The Gilded Democrat
January 30th, 2023 | 43 mins
Author Troy Senik discusses the enigma of the only Democrat to win the White House in our era, and why he mattered and matters.
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Episode 46: Robert Taft - Image and Reality
January 23rd, 2023 | 25 mins 34 secs
Taft biographer James T. Patterson discusses the ins and outs of one of the Republican Party's most effective legislators.
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Episode 45 (Stumbling Colossus, 23): Horatio Alger's Gilded Virtue
December 19th, 2022 | 36 mins 30 secs
Prof. Carol Nackenoff discusses the views, ideas, and failings of one of America's most well-known advocates of civic virtue and self-help.
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Episode 44: Giving Dewey His Due
December 12th, 2022 | 30 mins 5 secs
Professor Joshua Kennedy explains Thomas Dewey from his point of view, as well as his importance for the Republican Party and his clashes within the party and with the Democrats.
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Episode 43 (Stumbling Colossus, 22): The Gilded Midwest
December 5th, 2022 | 30 mins 21 secs
Dr. Jon Lauck discusses the triumphs and struggles of the country's most populous region in the Gilded Age.