Hosted by two historians, History Against the Grain is about developing an approach to history that challenges the dominant narratives, tears down the tired myths, and upends traditional assumptions.
Historyagainstthegrain@gmail.com
An unofficial motto of ours here at HAG is: things get worse before they get worse. And now we have evidence to support that immutable truth in the form of the time lapse apocalypse, i.e. the demonstrative enshitification of things since our last broadcast in the spring of this year. Through careful analysis of the pictures now and then, it appears things have gotten shittier. You want to see the evidence? (are you sure you want to see it?) AI’s nefarious influence has soaked deep into the pools of education, and in the words of HAG’s guiding light, Saint Rosenstock, the future is dubm. In today’s episode we take our Benihana knives to the whole “AI Education” fiasco. Another bit of inexplicable stupidity has Secretary of Defense Pete Voldemort resurrecting the zombie corpses of Confederate monuments to “restore” the nation’s proud past with more dehydrated history. To paraphrase Frederick Douglass, what’s missing here is not debate, but irony.
Well, there it is, just a smidgen of the evidence to illustrate the time lapse apocalypse. Not to fear, your HAG sushi chefs will filet and atomize the gross conceits of these evil-doers, and like lightning to a tree, offer a little historical shock therapy to bring our poor battered sensibilities back into focus.
Welcome to HAG, Episode 73, late-summer edition.
Opening Theme by Jessie DeCarlo (http://jessedecarlo.com)
Music Interludes:
Ambulance LTD -- "Primitive (the way I treat you)" (https://youtu.be/geMxPBQO3pQ?si=aCZRwlULSf6Ls1MP)
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band -- "Dropout Boogie" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WifCzN8BNF4&list=RDWifCzN8BNF4&start_radio=1)
Contact us at Historyagainstthegrain@gmail.com (Historyagainstthegrain@gmail.com)
Historyagainstthegrain.com (Historyagainstthegrain.com)
21 Mar 2025
Shifting Sovereignties
Welcome to the age of discourse dumping, are you dizzy? Do you study emoji eyes to find your facial recognition? Does the world look like a Cubist painting? Is the phrase ‘rubber baby buggy bumper’ starting to make sense? Not to worry. We are here to reassure you that the White Knight is, in fact, talking backwards and the inmates are indeed running the asylum. Our prescription: put the lime in the coconut and drink them both together, listen to Episode 72, and then you’ll feel better. HAG is, after all, the Harry Nilsson of history podcasts, and our very special guest today is Moritz Mihatsch, Cambridge scholar and co-author (with Michael Mulligan) of Shifting Sovereignties (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111447117/html?lang=en&srsltid=AfmBOoqnPrlepJAxNkamyPIdNa74K8I7yaKqxpLIJ5VDNXDFOkvDn58F) (available now). Their terrific new book offers an illuminating journey through the global history of what power has forever wanted you to believe, i.e. that the right folks are in charge. Excavating the meaning of sovereignty from the sedimentary layers of the human past, our guest explains why governing has always relied on a Wizard of Oz-like control over sound and color, equal parts legal pretense and quasi-religious authority, to create cover for whatever power wishes to do. So click your heels twice, repeat “there’s no home like HAG, there’s no home like HAG,” and settle in for more therapeutic historical analysis of a world trying to make us crazy.
Website: History Against the Grain (historyagainstthegrain.com)
Opening Theme by Jessie DeCarlo (http://jessedecarlo.com)
Music Interludes:
Gil Scott Heron and Makaya McCraven: "Running (https://youtu.be/1aRpH8KQ5hI)"
Darkside: "American References (https://darkside.bandcamp.com/track/american-references)"
4 Jan 2025
Myths and Nations
Is the strange truer than fiction, and are nations weirder than their staid mythologies? This episode we put that question to the test by considering some of the mind-bendingly strange truths of the more distant past, as well as the nutty history happening in real time right outside our windows. So who you calling strange anyway? You better take a good look in history’s mirror with your HAG hosts and our very special guest this episode, to see how it all reflects. Sarah Schneewind (https://history.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/schneewind.html), distinguished scholar of Chinese history at UC San Diego, joins us to chat about her textbook (https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9d699767#main), and why preparing students to confront the very strange in history builds empathy and bolsters critical thinking, altogether a good skill set for managing the strangeness of our contemporary world.
History Against the Grain (historyagainstthegrain.com)
Opening Theme by Jesse DeCarlo (jessedecarlo.com)
Music Interludes:
Nick Shoulders (https://nickshoulders.bandcamp.com/album/apocalypse-never), "All Bad"
Cindy Lee (https://cindylee.bandcamp.com/album/diamond-jubilee), "Diamond Jubilee"
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
11 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 52 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
74
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
77
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