Since the 1990s countries around the world have been building a new type of history museum. Rather than glorifying the nation, these museums are purpose-built to spotlight the darkest and most shameful chapters in national histories. They are inspired by a post-Holocaust, “never again,” human rights memorialization culture anchored in the belief that nations can and should learn from past wrongs. Until recently, the United States lagged behind this trend. Few American museums offered a critical perspective on the nation’s history of racial violence. Sociologist Amy Sodaro, an expert on museums and the politics of past violence, offers her insights on three new U.S. museums that feature the history of slavery and racial violence. This is the subject of her recent book, Lifting the Shadow: Reshaping Memory, Race and Slavery in U.S. Museums.

Despite the frenzied debates about what history we should be teaching in the United States, until recently most African American and mainstream history museums have continued to tell an uplifting story of racial progress and achievement. The United States has lagged behind museums in many other parts of the world which now give greater attention to recognizing past wrongs and injustices. In the July 7th episode I’ll be talking with Sociology Professor Amy Sodaro from the Borough of Manhattan Community College in the City University of New York about three new museums that feature the history of slavery and racial injustice. This is the subject of her latest book, Lifting the Shadow: Reshaping Memory, Race and Slavery in U.S. Museums.

How can we understand a problem so vast and complex as homelessness? After spending her career writing about the stereotyped and misunderstood, writer Alison Owings was eager to take on the challenge. While this was an omnipresent reality in her hometown of San Francisco, Alison had no idea where to begin. She found her answer on one of the Tenderloin Walking Tours named after the neighborhood with the city’s largest homeless population. The guide and founder of the tour, Del Seymour, became the subject of a decade-long project to tell the story of the homeless through the memories of one man. Del’s story is one of triumph and redemption. Del went from spending nearly two decades living on the streets of San Francisco to becoming an advocate for the homeless. First, first through the creation of the Tenderloin Walking Tours, then through the founding of Code Tenderloin, Del has drawn attention to the plight of the homeless while helping thousands from his community find jobs and a new life. In this episode, a conversation with Alison Owings about her book Mayor of the Tenderloin: Del Seymour’s Journey from Living on the Streets to Fighting Homelessness in San Francisco.

The problem of homelessness in the United States has reached epic proportions. But how can we understand such a complex issue affecting so many different kinds of people? Writer Alison Owings decided to take on the challenge by exploring the memories of one man, Del Seymour. Del’s story is one of triumph and redemption. He went from living on the streets of San Francisco to becoming known as Mayor of the Tenderloin, the city’s neighborhood with the largest homeless population. Del earned this title not just because of the jobs he created through the Tenderloin Walking Tours, but because of thousands he helped to build new lives through the work of Code Tenderloin. Join me on June 2nd for a conversation with Alison Owings about her book Mayor of the Tenderloin: Del Seymour’s Journey from Living on the Streets to Fighting Homelessness in San Francisco.

The challenge of any documentary director with a mission is to make the viewer care. What makes the 2026 Oscar award winning documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin resonate so powerfully is the love and honesty that inspires it. This is a production that showcases the unvarnished horrors of Putin’s militarization of Russia following the start of the war in Ukraine through the eyes of one man, Pavel “Pasha” Talenkin. A school teacher in a small town in the Urals, Pasha is the definition of a Mr. Nobody. His superpower, however, is his camera. He is the school videographer. Inspired by his deep love and attachment to his school and community, Pasha uses his camera to document Putin’s efforts to militarize Russian youth through the school system following the start of the war in Ukraine. From the Soviet-era industrial backdrop of the town of Karabash to Putin’s efforts to harness the spirit of sacrifice from the Great Patriotic War, memories function on multiple levels in this film. I had the opportunity to discuss the documentary with former guest and Penn State Professor of Rhetoric and Visual Communication, Katya Haskins. Katya’s book, Remembering the War, Forgetting the Terror: Appeals to Family Memory in Putin's Russia, is now available in paperback.

The horrors Russia has been inflicting on Ukraine have sadly become a familiar sight on the daily news. Far less attention has been paid to the consequences of the war for the Russian people. This is the subject of the 2026 Oscar award winning documentary, Mr. Nobody Against Putin. It is the story of an ordinary teacher who risks everything to show the world how the war and Putin’s education policies are destroying the lives of Russia’s youth. To discuss the documentary Katya Haskins will be returning to the podcast. A graduate of Moscow State University who witnessed the final years of the Soviet Union, Katya is a professor of rhetoric and visual studies at Pennsylvania State University. She is the author of Remembering the War, Forgetting the Terror: Appeals to Family Memory in Putin’s Russia. Join me and Katya Haskins on May 5th for a conversation about the documentary, Mr. Nobody Against Putin.

Americans are divided over most things and the past is no different. We disagree about whether to celebrate or question the past. We’re at odds over whether history indoctrinates or educates and whether young minds are harmed or helped by exposure to the complexity of the past. Historian John Garrison Marks argues that the real problem is that Americans dislike ambiguity. There is no better example of this dilemma than George Washington. Responsible for the creation of a new American political order based on the ideals of democracy, liberty, and equality, Washington was to his dying day a slave holder. He was a supporter of gradual emancipation and freed his own slaves in his last will and testament but he never took a public stand against slavery during his lifetime. How we remember George Washington reveals much about how we understand ourselves and what it means to be American. A conversation with John Garrison Marks about his book, Thy Will Be Done: George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery and the Struggle Over American Memory, in this episode of the Realms of Memory podcast.

Americans have been struggling with the memory of George Washington since his death. Should we celebrate his role in the creation of the nation or lament that he actively participated in and profited from the business of slave owning? Should we underscore that he freed his own slaves in his last will and testament or highlight that he never took a public position against slavery during his lifetime? Depending on the political context, historian John Garrison Marks argues that Americans have preferred to cherry-pick from Washington’s past to support their agenda in the present. Only through a fuller understanding of Washington and his legacy of slavery can we arrive at a meaningful, shared past. A conversation with John Garrison Marks about his book, Thy Will Be Done: George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery and the Struggle Over American Memory, next on the April 7th episode of the Realms of Memory podcast.