The Holding History Podcast presents fast-paced, bookish conversations about the fascinating and, sometimes puzzling, ways we record, share, and preserve cultural knowledge. In each episode, Joshua Calhoun, Sarah Marty, and their book-loving guests tell new stories about old media.
In this episode, we speak with acclaimed essayist Meghan O’Gieblyn about the evolving relationship between artificial intelligence and the human imagination. Meghan is the author of God Human Animal Machine and the essay collection Interior States, which won the 2018 Believer Book Award. She writes essays and criticism for Harper's Magazine, The New Yorker, WIRED, The New York Review of Books, n+1, The Point, The Baffler, and Bookforum.
Relying on Meghan’s research and background in Western history and philosophy, religion, and technology, the conversation grapples with what it means to be human in this specific historical moment. As the conversation progresses, our own definition of the human emerges emphasizing the messy, vulnerable, and suboptimal characteristics that make us who we are.
To learn more about the texts, ideas, and people mentioned in this interview, and to access a transcript, visit the episode guide on HoldingHistory.org.
Thanks for listening!
30 Sept 2025
AI, Commonplace Books, and Information Management
In this episode, we reunited with Holding History alum and commonplace book enthusiast Ethan Kay to talk about how to leverage AI for personal knowledge management (PKM) systems. Ethan is currently a Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI where he focuses on AI-native search and answer experiences in ChatGPT.
The conversation winds between how different technologies augment and create our personal archives. As Ethan shares his own practices and advice for how to utilize LLMs to enhance learning or store knowledge, a question is prompted: what will happen to physical, material media like books? The answer turns out to be more hopeful than you might expect.
To learn more about the texts, ideas, and people mentioned in this interview, and to access a transcript, visit the episode guide on HoldingHistory.org.
Thanks for listening!
16 Sept 2025
AI, Accessibility, and Library Archives
In this first episode of our third season, we talk to software engineers and old-book-enthusiasts Ben Brumfield and Sara Carlstead Brumfield, the power-couple duo who founded From the Page, a crowdsourcing platform for archives and libraries where volunteers transcribe, index, and describe historic documents.
We spoke with them about the idiosyncrasies of working with archival documents, the technological challenges of making metadata accessible while staving off poorly behaved bots that crash library sites in their quest for more training data, how technology changes the ways we interact with and engage archival work, and how AI can increase accessibility to these documents.
To learn more about the texts, ideas, and people mentioned in this interview, and to access a transcript, visit the episode guide on HoldingHistory.org.
Thanks for listening!
26 Oct 2023
How can the archives inspire a multimedia atlas?
A conversation with Professor Christina Gerhardt.
8 Aug 2023
How can the archives inspire historical fiction?
A conversation with Jennifer Chiaverini.
26 Jul 2023
How can the archives inspire climate fiction?
A conversation with Bruce Holsinger.
2 Aug 2022
What Makes a Shakespeare* Archive Special?
This episode features a conversation with Dr. Gregory Mackie from the University of British Columbia.
We arranged to speak with Greg in light of UBC’s recent acquisition of a First Folio, a purchase that Greg engineered. We learned all about the process of how one gets such a book, where the money comes from, and what happens when it actually arrives. But with Greg, we also learned that a Shakespeare archive is really a fantasy, a gateway into a much broader discussion.
To learn more about the texts, ideas, and people mentioned in this interview, and to access a transcript, visit the episode guide on HoldingHistory.org.
Thanks for listening!
21 Jun 2022
What Makes a Research Archive Special?
This episode features a conversation with Fenella France, Chief of the Preservation Research and Testing Division at the Library of Congress. Fenella works at the forefront of the field of archival preservation.
Our discussion begins with specifics about her recent projects and the lab where Fenella operates but moves toward global questions of project approach, archival organization, destructive and/or predictive testing, digital preservation, and, of course, the future.
To learn more about the texts, ideas, and people mentioned in this interview, and to access a transcript, visit the episode guide on HoldingHistory.org.
Thanks for listening!
26 Apr 2022
What Makes an Environmental Archive Special?
This episode features a conversation with Curt Meine, conservation biologist, environmental historian, writer, and Senior Fellow at the Aldo Leopold Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin.
From Curt’s Driftless Area farmhouse, the HH Pod crew learns about the Aldo Leopold Archive but quickly moves to a broader discussion about biography, environment, and the possibility of land-as-archive.
This episode’s Bookish Word, bibliophile, was created by Sarah Bulvan.
To learn more about the texts, ideas, and people mentioned in this interview, and to access a transcript, visit the episode guide on HoldingHistory.org.
Thanks for listening!
30 Mar 2022
What Makes a Spoken Word Archive Special?
This episode features a conversation with Wisconsin Poet Laureate, Dasha Kelly Hamilton. Dasha is a poet, performance artist, and creative change agent.
22 Feb 2022
What Makes a Personal Archive Special?
In this episode, we talk with Suzanne Akbari, author, and professor of medieval studies about what makes personal archives special.
18 Jan 2022
What Makes a Sports Archive Special?
We ask Damion Thomas, what makes a sports archive special?
6 Sept 2021
What Makes an Audio Archive Special?
We ask Anne Strainchamps, what makes an audio archive special?
6 Jan 2021
Holding History Podcast Preview
An excerpt from our conversation with Anne Strainchamps.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
9 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
3 ratings
Contact Holding History Podcast
Guest appearances
Does not typically book guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of Holding History Podcast?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
