Often, the most ear worthy podcasts are those that search across multiple genres for their show's topic. There are so many politics podcasts covering the same scraps of political infighting. There are so many history podcasts covering the same events.
How about a podcast that combines politics with history and then adds a layer of decadent esotericism to the mix?
Then you get This Day In Esoteric Political History.
What's special about this show? Consider some of the episodes.
The great Idaho Beaver Parachute Drop of 1948. Or The First Crossword Puzzle in 1913 in the New York World newspaper. Or an episode about a failed assassination attempt on newly elected President John F. Kennedy you've probably never heard of.
Or an early episode of the show in 2020 about the 17th Amendment and how Senators were elected and how that changed the mechanics of Democracy.
The show is produced by Radiotopia from PRX, which is a network created specifically for independent podcasts.
Radiotopia says: "We empower creators with
the support to deliver well-crafted, innovative audio, and the freedom
to thrive on their own terms."
Led by Audrey Mardavich and Yooree Losordo, Radiotopia was created in 2014 through a partnership between PRX and Roman Mars of 99% Invisible. Radiotopia is supported by a mix of grants, sponsors and, above all, contributions from tens of thousands of listeners.
In this show, Jody Avirgan, Nicole Hemmer and Kellie Carter Jackson (and guests) take one moment, big or small, from that day in U.S. political history and explore how it might inform our present –– all in about fifteen minutes.
New episodes release Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays.
The co-hosts mesh well, and guests who are experts on the event being covered can showcase an episode. Witness the August 30, 2020, show about how President Jimmy Carter was allegedly attacked by a rabbit in a canoe (or rowboat.) Sam Sanders, then of NPR, superbly recounts the media hysteria of an encounter between the most powerful man in the world and a "wascally wabbit."
This Day In Esoteric Political History is a show with a sense of humor, a sense of discovery about these events, and a sense of irony since these events covered often contradict a long-standing belief of the American historical record.
All three co-hosts have overachiever and annoyingly prolific written all their respective bios.
Kellie Carter Jackson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. She is the author of Force & Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence, which won the James H. Broussard Best First Book Prize. She was a finalist for the Stone Book Prize and the Frederick Douglass Prize. She is also co-editor of Reconsidering Roots: Race, Politics, & Memory, essays exploring the impact of Alex Haley’s Roots.
Jody Avirgan has apparently done everything in podcasting. He is a podcast host, producer, and editor. His production company is Roulette Productions.
He is, of course, the co-host of the Radiotopia show “This Day In Esoteric Political History,” and “Good Sport” from the TED Audio Collective, and serves as story editor and executive producer for a number of projects.
Most recently he has helped make “The Run,” from MLB and Audacy; “The Line,” from Dan Taberski and Apple Podcasts; Adam McKay’s “Death at the Wing” from Hyperobject Industries; and “Oprahdemics” from Radiotopia. Avirgan is also one of the regular hosts for “Hark Daily” on the Hark podcast discovery app.
From 2017-2020, he ran and hosted 30 for 30 Podcasts, part of ESPN Films. He was also involved in larger efforts at ESPN to grow the podcast strategy and slate of shows.
Avirgan also developed FiveThirtyEight Podcasts, where he hosted, reported and edited a variety of shows and projects. He was the host of the FiveThirtyEight politics podcast, where he covered the 2016 campaign and the rise of Trump; and was host of What's The Point - a show about how data affects our lives.
Prior to arriving at ESPN/538, Avirgan was a producer at WNYC radio, and has worked with shows such as On The Media, Marketplace, Freakonomics, 99% Invisible, and many more.
I'm exhausted just writing about his accomplishments.
Check out This Day In Esoteric Political History. The show is particularly relevant today, as conservative efforts to restrict the teaching of U.S. History to a specific whitewashed version spread and marginalize those who make significant contributions to the growth of this nation.
The show highlights events forgotten by most, but should be remembered by many.
Consider the November 9, 2023 episode about Confederate Commander Henry Wirz who was executed on that day in 1865 for war crimes in Andersonville. The only Confederate officer to be executed, Wirz ran a camp at which more than 13,000 U.S. soldiers died -- a 25 percent death rate.
Or the episode about a skirmish that broke out between the U.S. Army and the Dakota Indians, in which 38 Dakota men were hanged in Mankato, Minnesota, making it the largest mass execution in U.S. History.
Check out This Day In Esoteric Political History. It's a podcast that is a fusion of history, politics, the improbable, and the implausible.
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