UNC Press Presents Podcast

UNC Press Presents Podcast

episodes

Interviews with authors of University of North Carolina Press books.

Sarah McNamara, "Ybor City: Crucible of the Latina South" (UNC Press, 2023)

June 11, 2026

Ybor City

Sarah McNamara

Decades before Miami became Havana USA, a wave of leftist, radical, working-class women and men from prerevolutionary Cuba crossed the Florida Straits…

Michael Staudenmaier, "White, Black, Brown: Becoming Puerto Rican in Chicago" (UNC Press, 2026)

June 10, 2026

White, Black, Brown

Michael Staudenmaier
Hosted by Michael Stauch

Independent historian Michael Staudenmaier joins Michael Stauch to discuss his new book about “becoming Puerto Rican” in Chicago. Staudenmaier’s b…

Justin F Jackson, "The Work of Empire: War, Occupation, and the Making of American Colonialism in Cuba and the Philippines" (UNC Press, 2025)

June 10, 2026

The Work of Empire

Justin F Jackson
Hosted by Jack R. Werner

In 1898, on the eve of the Spanish-American War, the US Army seemed minuscule and ill-equipped for global conflict. Yet over the next fifteen years, i…

Lauren Duval, "The Home Front: Revolutionary Households, Military Occupation, and the Making of American Independence" (UNC Press, 2025)

June 3, 2026

The Home Front

Lauren Duval
Hosted by Leah Cargin

Prior to the American Revolution, the urban centers of colonial North America had little direct experience of war. With the outbreak of violence, Brit…

Julia F. Irwin, "Catastrophic Diplomacy: US Foreign Disaster Assistance in the American Century" (UNC Press, 2023)

May 25, 2026

Catastrophic Diplomacy

Julia F. Irwin
Hosted by Nathan Moore

Catastrophic Diplomacy: US Foreign Disaster Assistance in the American Century (UNC Press, 2023) offers a sweeping history of US foreign disaster assi…

Oscar Winberg, "Archie Bunker for President: How One Television Show Remade American Politics" (UNC Press, 2025)

May 25, 2026

Archie Bunker for President

Oscar Winberg
Hosted by Lilly Goren

Political historian Oscar Winberg has a fascinating new book titled Archie Bunker for President: How One Television Show Remade American Politics. Thi…

James O'Neil Spady, "Take Freedom: Recovering the Fugitive History of the Denmark Vesey Affair" (UNC Press, 2026)

May 23, 2026

Take Freedom

James O'Neil Spady
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In 1822, Black Charlestonians attempted to overthrow slavery. They were exposed before they could strike, and many were tried and executed in what…

Justin Randolph, "Mississippi Law: Policing and Reform in America’s Jim Crow Countryside (UNC Press, 2026)

May 17, 2026

Mississippi Law

Justin Randolph
Hosted by Michael Stauch

Justin Randolph, assistant professor of history at Texas A&M University, joins Michael Stauch to discuss Mississippi Law: Policing and Reform in Ameri…

Katie Batza, "AIDS in the Heartland: How Unlikely Coalitions Created a Blueprint for LGBTQ Politics" (UNC Press, 2025)

May 2, 2026

AIDS in the Heartland

Katie Batza
Hosted by Donna Anderson

This episode features a conversation with Dr. Katie Batza on their recently published book, AIDS in the Heartland: How Unlikely Coalitions Created a B…

Jason R. Young, "The Mask of Memory: White Racial Fantasy After the Civil War" (UNC Press, 2026)

May 1, 2026

The Mask of Memory

Jason R. Young
Hosted by Sullivan Summer

In the early twentieth century, a group of white writers, artists, and performers from the cultural hub of Charleston, South Carolina, created and cur…

Samira K. Mehta, "God Bless the Pill: The Surprising History of Contraception and Sexuality in American Religion" (UNC Press, 2026)

April 30, 2026

God Bless the Pill

Samira K. Mehta
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Most people today understand contraception as central to women’s liberation, and when the birth control pill arrived in 1960, the media thought it wou…

Lindsay Rae Smith Privette, "The Surgeon's Battle: How Medicine Won the Vicksburg Campaign and Changed the Civil War" (UNC Press, 2025)

April 4, 2026

The Surgeon's Battle

Lindsay Rae Smith Privette
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Between May 1 and May 22, 1863, Union soldiers marched nearly 200 miles through the hot, humid countryside to assault and capture the fortified city o…

Joseph Weiss, "Irreconcilable: Indigeneity and the Violence of Colonial Erasure in Contemporary Canada" (UNC Press, 2026)

March 17, 2026

Irreconcilable

Joseph Weiss

Since the early 2000s, the Canadian government has attempted reconciliation with Indigenous Nations through varied efforts: treaty processes, governme…

Antwain K. Hunter, "A Precarious Balance: Firearms, Race, and Community in North Carolina, 1715-1865" (UNC Press, 2025)

March 16, 2026

A Precarious Balance

Antwain K. Hunter
Hosted by Sullivan Summer

Spanning the 1720s through the end of the Civil War, A Precarious Balance: Firearms, Race, and Community in North Carolina, 1715-1865 (UNC Press, 202…

Cecilia Márquez, "Making the Latino South: A History of Racial Formation" (UNC Press, 2023)

February 22, 2026

Making the Latino South

Cecilia Márquez
Hosted by Anna Lindner

The presence of Latinx people in the American South has long confounded the region's persistent racial binaries. In Making the Latino South: A History…

Zaid Adhami, "Dilemmas of Authenticity: The American Muslim Crisis of Faith" (UNC Press, 2025)

February 11, 2026

Dilemmas of Authenticity

Zaid Adhami
Hosted by Shehnaz Haqqani

In one of the most important books published in 2025—Dilemmas of Authenticity: The American Muslim Crisis of Faith, published by UNC Press—Zaid Adhami…

Alaina M. Morgan, "Atlantic Crescent: Building Geographies of Black and Muslim Liberation in the African Diaspora" (UNC Press, 2025)

January 27, 2026

Atlantic Crescent

Alaina M. Morgan
Hosted by Shobhana Xavier

Alaina Morgan's Atlantic Crescent: Building Geographies of Black and Muslim Liberation in the African Diaspora (UNC Press, 2025) introduces the concep…

Brian D. Behnken, "Brown and Blue: Mexican Americans, Law Enforcement, and Civil Rights in the Southwest, 1935-2025" (UNC Press, 2025)

January 21, 2026

Brown and Blue

Brian D. Behnken
Hosted by Michael Stauch

How police abuse ignited the Chicano movement in the Southwest Brown and Blue: Mexican Americans, Law Enforcement, and Civil Rights in the Southwest,…

Ryan Emanuel, "On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice" (UNC Press, 2024)

January 12, 2026

On the Swamp

Ryan Emanuel

Despite centuries of colonialism, Indigenous peoples still occupy parts of their ancestral homelands in what is now Eastern North Carolina--a patchwor…

Robert D. Bland, "Requiem for Reconstruction: Black Countermemory and the Legacy of the Lowcountry's Lost Political Generation" (UNC Press, 2026)

January 5, 2026

Requiem for Reconstruction

Robert D. Bland
Hosted by Sullivan Summer

The promise of Reconstruction sparked a transformative era in American history as free and newly emancipated Black Americans sought to redefine their …