Talking History is a radio program and podcast created by KSMU Ozarks Public Radio in association with the Missouri State University Department of History. Each month, hosts Djene Bajalan and Patrick Needham speak with historians and scholars about the ideas, people, and events that have shaped our world. Talking History airs on KSMU 91.1 FM the first Thursday of each month at 12:06 pm CT.
Bringing stories of the past to life, the History Museum on the Square
In this episode of Talking History, Pat speaks with Sean FitzGibbons, executive director of the History Museum on the Square (https://historymuseumonthesquare.org/).
The History Museum on the Square focuses on telling the story of Springfield and Greene County. FitzGibbons talks about the history of the museum itself, which is now 50 years old, as well as some of the history surrounding Park Central Square, where the museum is located.
Highlights include the shootout between Wild Bill Hickok and Davis Tutt in 1865; the Ozarks Jubilee, filmed at the Jewell Theatre; how public transit helped shape the city; and the Civil War battles in downtown Springfield.
The History Museum on the Square hosts walking tours throughout the year and this October, the museum offers haunted walking tours. Guests will visit several spooky downtown venues, including the Fox Theatre, Tabak Co (formerly an undertaker’s business), and the site of Wild Bill’s famous shootout. For information on tours, call 417-831-1976.
Sean FitzGibbons is the executive director of the History Museum on the Square. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and his Master of Fine Arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis. He is passionate about community outreach, cultural storytelling, and making the humanities accessible to diverse communities.
3 Sept 2026
For nearly a century, the Springfield Art Museum has brought fine art to the Ozarks
The Springfield Art Museum was founded almost 100 years ago, and became a part of the city of Springfield in the late 1940s. In that century, the institution has grown form annual exhibitions of traveling art to a modern accredited art museum with a significant collection.
This month on Talking History, Patrick Needham is joined by Sarah Buhr, the Museum’s Curator and author of A History of the Springfield Art Museum to talk about the evolution of the institution, the value of art in public life, and what the study of art can teach us about the historical record.
6 Aug 2026
A Christian History of Muslim Spain with Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
On this episode of Talking History, Djene speaks with Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi about his new translation of Rodrigo Ximénez de Rada’s thirteenth-century Minor Histories.
In the early thirteenth century, the Iberian Peninsula stood at a decisive historical turning point. Muslim political power was declining, Christian kingdoms were expanding, and the city of Toledo remained a meeting place of Christian, Jewish and Islamic cultures. At the center of these transformations stood Rodrigo Ximénez de Rada: archbishop of Toledo, royal adviser, crusader and one of medieval Spain’s most ambitious historians.
Rodrigo sought to explain Spain’s past through the histories of the Romans, Goths, Vandals, Huns and Arabs. His History of the Arabs, in particular, offers a remarkable, and frequently contradictory, medieval Christian account of Arab history and Islam.
Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is a British-Iraqi historian based in Syria and Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is the translator of Rodrigo Ximenez de Rada's Minor Histories (https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526189646/).
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