American West

American West

episodes

Interviews with scholars of the American West about their new books.

Karen McNally ed., "Women in Hollywood's Dream Factory: Tales of Inequality, Abuse, and Resistance" (U Illinois Press, 2026)

March 18, 2026

Women in Hollywood's Dream Factory

Karen McNally
Hosted by Priyam Sinha

The #MeToo revelations put a twenty-first-century stamp on the age-old story of women’s mistreatment in Hollywood. In Women in Hollywood's Dream Facto…

Paul Gillingham, "Mexico: A 500-Year History" (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2025)

March 7, 2026

Mexico

Paul Gillingham
Hosted by Stephen Hausmann

Mexico is among the most unique nations in the world, writes Northwestern University historian Paul Gillingham in Mexico: A 500-Year History (Atlantic…

Dorothy Denetclaw and Matt Fitzsimons, "The Sons of Gunshooter:  A Navajo Resistance Story" (U Arizona Press, 2026)

February 26, 2026

The Sons of Gunshooter

Dorothy Denetclaw and Matt Fitzsimons
Hosted by Mary Reynolds

In 1919, the brother of one of the West’s most famous Indian traders was shot to death in a remote corner of the Navajo Nation. Part history, part…

Fred Turner on Countercultures, Cybercultures, and Californian and Texan Ideologies

February 25, 2026

Countercultures, Cybercultures, and Californian and Texan Ideologies

Fred Turner
Hosted by Lee Vinsel

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, and guest host, Paula Bialski, Associate Professor of Digital Sociology at University of St. Gallen, talk to Fred T…

Josh Seim, "The Welfare Assembly Line: Public Servants in the Suffering City" (U California Press, 2026)

February 24, 2026

The Welfare Assembly Line

Josh Seim
Hosted by Stephen Pimpare

Despite claims that we live in a "post-welfare society," welfare offices remain vital not only for those who depend on them for benefits but also for …

Marc James Carpenter, "The War on Illahee: Genocide, Complicity, and Cover-Ups in the Pioneer Northwest" (Yale UP, 2025)

February 13, 2026

The War on Illahee

Marc James Carpenter
Hosted by Stephen Hausmann

The War on Illahee: Genocide, Complicity, and Cover-Ups in the Pioneer Northwest (Yale UP, 2025) by Marc James Carpenter is a history book about histo…

Jameson R. Sweet, "Mixed-Blood Histories: Race, Law, and Dakota Indians in the Nineteenth-Century Midwest" (U Minnesota Press, 2025)

February 9, 2026

Mixed-Blood Histories

Jameson R. Sweet
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Historical accounts tend to neglect mixed-ancestry Native Americans: racially and legally differentiated from nonmixed Indigenous people by U.S. gover…

Dafeng Xu, "Chinatown: San Francisco's 1906 Earthquake and the Paradox of American Immigration Policy" (JHU Press, 2026)

February 4, 2026

Chinatown

Dafeng Xu
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

San Francisco's Chinatown is the oldest Chinatown in North America and one of the largest Chinese enclaves outside Asia. Spanning 30 city blocks and h…

Tara Lohan, "Undammed: Freeing Rivers and Bringing Communities to Life" (Island Press, 2025)

January 27, 2026

Undammed

Tara Lohan
Hosted by Michael Simpson

Undammed: Freeing Rivers and Bringing Communities to Life (Island Press, 2025) is not Tara’s first book, she authored one at age eight. From their she…

Edward Dimendberg ed., "Richard Neutra and the Making of the Lovell Health House, 1925–35" (Getty Research Institute, 2025)

January 25, 2026

Richard Neutra and the Making of the Lovell Health House, 1925–35

Edward Dimendberg
Hosted by Paul Lerner

Richard Neutra and the Making of the Lovell Health House, 1925–35 (Getty Research Institute, 2025) tells the story of the Lovell Health House, designe…

Damon Scott, "The City Aroused: Queer Places and Urban Redevelopment in Postwar San Francisco" (U Texas Press, 2024)

January 24, 2026

The City Aroused

Damon Scott
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The City Aroused: Queer Places and Urban Redevelopment in Postwar San Francisco (University of Texas Press, 2024) by Dr. Damon Scott is a lively histo…

Malcolm Harris, "Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World" (Little, Brown, 2023)

January 19, 2026

Palo Alto

Malcolm Harris
Hosted by Brian Hamilton

Palo Alto is nice. The weather is temperate, the people are educated, rich, healthy, enterprising. Remnants of a hippie counterculture have synthesize…

Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado, "Taco" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

January 19, 2026

Taco

Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Taco (Bloomsbury, 2025) is a deep dive into the most iconic Mexican food from the perspective of a Mexico City native. In a narrative that moves from …

John M. Findlay, "The Mobilized American West, 1940-2000" (U Nebraska Press, 2023)

January 18, 2026

The Mobilized American West, 1940-2000

John M. Findlay
Hosted by Stephen Hausmann
Listen:

At the end of the 1930s, the West was in peril. A cultural and economic backwater, the Great Depression had all-but wiped out the extractive industrie…

Peter F. Burns et. al, "Disneyland Politics: How a Medium-Size City and Corporate Giant Coexist" (Temple UP, 2025)

January 14, 2026

Disneyland Politics

Peter F. Burns, Dr. Matthew O. Thomas, and Max R. Bieganski
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

When Walt Disney decided to build Disneyland in Anaheim, CA in the 1950s, the move presented a puzzle for Anaheim’s government: How would the city bal…

Matthew Davis, "A Biography of a Mountain: The Making and Meaning of Mount Rushmore" (St. Martin's Press, 2025)

January 4, 2026

A Biography of a Mountain

Matthew Davis
Hosted by Stephen Hausmann

Mount Rushmore is something of an American Rorschach test. Some look at the monument and see American patriotic ideals carved into a mountainside. Oth…

Scott A. Mitchell, "The Making of American Buddhism" (Oxford UP, 2023)

December 30, 2025

The Making of American Buddhism

Scott A. Mitchell
Listen:

Scott A. Mitchell is the Dean of Students and Faculty Affairs and holds the Yoshitaka Tamai Professorial Chair at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in…

Jean Pfaelzer, "California, a Slave State" (Yale UP, 2023)

December 29, 2025

California, a Slave State

Jean Pfaelzer
Hosted by Shu Wan
Listen:

California owes its origins and sunny prosperity to slavery. Spanish invaders captured Indigenous people to build the chain of Catholic missions. Russ…

Amy Bowers Cordalis, "The Water Remembers: My Indigenous Family's Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life" (Little Brown, 2024)

December 23, 2025

The Water Remembers

Amy Bowers Cordalis
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

For the members of a Northern California tribe, salmon are the lifeblood of the people—a vital source of food, income, and cultural identity. When a c…

Jennifer Ott, "Where the City Meets the Sound: The Story of Seattle's Waterfront" (HistoryLink, 2025)

December 19, 2025

Where the City Meets the Sound

Jennifer Ott
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

From canoes on the beach at Dzidzilalich to steamships and piers, Seattle's waterfront was the center of the city's economy and culture for generation…