American West

American West

episodes

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

Robert Suits, "The Hobo: A History of America's First Climate Migrants" (Princeton UP, 2026)

June 16, 2026

The Hobo

Robert Suits
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

From the mid-nineteenth century through the dust bowl years of the Great Depression, a new kind of migrant worker became a familiar sight in communiti…

Javier Arbona-Homar, "Explosivity: Following What Remains" (U Minnesota Press, 2025)

June 8, 2026

Explosivity

Javier Arbona-Homar
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Offering a novel approach to contemporary landscape studies,⁠ ⁠⁠Explosivity: Following What Remains⁠ (U Minnesota Press, 2025) unearths the hidden leg…

Robert B. Marks, "Deep Time in the Mono Lake Basin: Nature and History Over the Last 10,000 Years" (U California Press, 2026)

June 7, 2026

Deep Time in the Mono Lake Basin

Robert B. Marks
Hosted by Stephen Hausmann

"Deep Time," a way of understanding the distant past popularized in the late 20th century by the writer John McPhee, changes our perspective on histor…

Kristian Williams, "Policing the Progressive City: Portland, Oregon, from Settlement to Uprising" (AK Press, 2026)

June 7, 2026

Policing the Progressive City

Kristian Williams
Hosted by Michael Stauch

Kristian Williams, longtime activist and writer, joins Michael Stauch to discuss his new book ⁠Policing the Progressive City: Portland, Oregon, from S…

Ann Carlson, "Smog and Sunshine: The Surprising Story of How Los Angeles Cleaned Up Its Air" (U California Press, 2026)

June 6, 2026

Smog and Sunshine

Ann Carlson
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Los Angeles and smog have been synonymous for decades. From the 1940s through the 1980s, children breathed air so heavy with lead that their blood…

S5E9 A Divine Comedy: On Hollywood, Creativity, and Religion with Rob Long

June 3, 2026

S5E9 A Divine Comedy

Rob Long
Hosted by Ryan Shinkel

Here in Episode 9 of Season 5, I interview Mr. Rob Long. A longtime Hollywood professional, he was a writer and producer for the classic sitcom Cheers…

Craig Fehrman, "This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis & Clark" (Simon & Schuster, 2026)

May 31, 2026

This Vast Enterprise

Craig Fehrman
Hosted by Raymond Williams

In 1806, when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark return from their journey—having led the Corps of Discovery across eight thousand miles of rapids, mo…

Frontier Films for America250: On the Western Genre and Beyond with Matthew J. Franck

May 6, 2026

Frontier Films for America250

Matthew J. Franck
Hosted by Ryan Shinkel

Here in Episode 7 of Season 5, I interview Dr. Matthew J. Franck. A senior contributing fellow at Public Discourse, a visiting lecturer in the Departm…

Caste and Race: Ambedkar and King with the Ambedkar King Study Circle

April 27, 2026

Caste and Race

S. Karthikeyan and S. Subbulakshmi

This episode features S. Karthikeyan and S. Subbulakshmi, the Convenor and Secretary of the Ambedkar King Study Circle, an anti-caste organization bas…

Kaitlin P. Reed, "Settler Cannabis: From Gold Rush to Green Rush in Indigenous Northern California" (U Washington Press, 2023)

April 27, 2026

Settler Cannabis

Kaitlin P. Reed
Hosted by Stephen Hausmann

Despite it's centrality to a hippie counterculture which claimed an environmentalist ethos, California's "green rush" of cannabis growing from the mid…

David-James Gonzales, "Breaking Down the Walls of Segregation: Mexican American Grassroots Politics and Civil Rights in Orange County, California" (Oxford UP, 2025)

April 14, 2026

Breaking Down the Walls of Segregation

David-James Gonzales

On March 2, 1945, five Mexican American families and their Jewish American lawyer filed a class-action lawsuit against four school districts in Orange…

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…