Best Michael McGuinness Podcasts (2025)

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Episode 25: “Most gun control arguments miss the point. If all control boils fundamentally to force, how can one resist aggression without equal force? How can a truly “free” state exist if the indivi 1:38:19

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4y ago1:38:19

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Hey everyone! Episode 25 is live! I'm joined with Dr. Drew McKevitt (@drewmckevitt) of Louisiana Tech University, and we're talking about Gun Legislation in the United States. From what exactly is a militia, to the effects of the NFA, FFA, how the Black Panther Party for Self Defense affected the gun control movement, to the Brady Bill, this episod…

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Episode 24: “It’s a very special part of America that is full of promise but also full of pain, where poverty is acute.” The Rust Belt 1:56:06

4y ago1:56:06

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What's up everyone? For Episode 24, I'm joined by Dr. Bradley Sommer (@historybrad on the Bird app), and we're talking about the Rust Belt, the place both he and I will always call home. We talk about it's importance to the growth of the country, the different sectors of manufacturing that made up the area, the policies that drove that manufacturin…

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“The ‘takings’ clause of the Fifth Amendment is for conservatives what the equal protection clause of the 14th is for liberals.” Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid and the Takings Clause 1:01:01

4y ago1:01:01

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Hey everyone! Once again, I'm joined by Jordin Dickerson (@Jordin_Aterria), professor at UNCP in PoliSci, holder of a history and law degree, and current public defender, and we're talking about the "Takings clause" of the Fifth Amendment and some important cases that have shaped the US in the last 20 years or so. While not TOO old as far as histor…

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You Don't Know History Hits the Books 2: "Race, Crime, and Policing in the Jim Crow South," with Dr. Brandon Jett 50:01

4y ago50:01

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YDKH Hits the Books is back with our second episode, featuring Dr. Brandon Jett. His upcoming book, "Race, Crime, and Policing in the Jim Crow South" comes out on 7 July, and he came on to talk about it! You can grab a copy here: https://www.brandontjett.com/books and here: https://lsupress.org/books/detail/race-crime-and-policing-in-the-jim-crow-s…

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Episode 22: “The Weimar Republic gave nectar to the artists, social reformers, and progressive people of all classes. They drank it, unaware that they were sitting close to a dungheap.” The Weimar Rep 1:44:13

4y ago1:44:13

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Hey everyone! For episode 22, I'm joined by Dr. Adam A. Blackler (@adam_blackerWY) and we're talking about the Weimar Republic. We cover A LOT in this episode, from the economic hardships, the amazing culture of the republic, how it wasn't doomed to fail, and ultimately, how it fell. This was an amazing episode, and I hope you enjoy it! YDKH's them…

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Episode 21: “Liberté, égalité, fraternité”-The French Revolution 2:13:49

4y ago2:13:49

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Hey everyone! For episode 21, I'm joined by Dr. Corinne Gressang (@corinnegressang on Twitter), assistant professor of history at Erskine College and we're covering the French Revolution. We cover why the conditions in France were ripe for a revolution, how Louis XVI didn't really have the tools to be king, as well as the multiple iterations of the…

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YDKH Hits the Books: "Clear, Hold, and Destroy" 54:43

4y ago54:43

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Hey everyone! YDKH is BACK! In this episode, Dr. Rob Thompson is back to talk about his new book "Clear, Hold, and Destroy: Pacification in Phú Yên and the American War in Vietnam." We talk about what got Dr. Thompson interested in the province, what sources he utilized, and how to deal with book reviews. It was great having Dr. Thompson back on, a…

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Episode 20: : “I never understand these ‘the South will rise again’ people. Again? It never rose before. It tried to and Lincoln stomped it’s ass.” The History of the Lost Cause 1:27:41

4y ago1:27:41

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Hey everyone! For Episode 20, I'm joined by Mark Herbert, a Civil War historian and MA student at Missouri State University, and today we're talking about the history of the Lost Cause. In this episode, we talk about how the Lost Cause mythology has managed to grow since the end of the Civil War, and how it continues to grow. We talk about Confeder…

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YDKH @ The Movies: "Black Hawk Down" 1:51:34

4y ago1:51:34

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Hey everyone! We're back! I'm joined by Dick Warlock (@NotDickWarlock on Twitter) where we talked about the film "Black Hawk Down." We talk about the film, how the film glorified a horrible conflict, and how the film acted as a recruiting tool for the military shortly after 9/11. This will be the format for future bonus episodes, but everyone is ge…

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Episode 19: -“Campaigns made choices, set fires, and even poured gasoline if accelerant was needed, which is why the passage of time has not, in fact extinguished, such prejudice. It is kept aflame as 55:35

4y ago55:35

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Hey everyone! In episode 19, I'm joined by Dr. Virginia Summey (@HistorySummey), and independent historian and faculty fellow in the Lloyd International Honors College at the University of Norther Carolina-Greensboro, and we're talking about a VERY divisive topic in American political history: the Southern Strategy. We get into the background of th…

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Episode 18: “I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” The Hist 1:47:53

4+ y ago1:47:53

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Hello! For episode 18, I'm joined by Dr. Eladio Bobadilla, assistant professor of history at the University of Kentucky (@e_b_bobadilla on Twitter) where we talk about the history of the US Labor Movement. We cover a TON in this episode, including a personal favorite of mine, Eugene V. Debs, how labor fought for workers' rights throughout the count…

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Episode 17: “So long as I do not firmly and irrevocably possess the right to vote I do not possess myself. I cannot make up my mind-it is made up for me.” The History of Voter Suppression in the Unite 1:14:00

4+ y ago1:14:00

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Hey everone! This week, I'm joined by Prof. Jordin Dickerson (@jordin_atierria) where we talk about the history of voter suppression in the United States. We'll talk about the efforts of the Founding Fathers to initially limit who could voted, how voter suppression tactics only became more and more refined during the Jim Crow era, how those tactics…

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Episode 16: "You are miserable bankrupts, your role is played out; go back to where you ought to to: into the dustbin of history!" The October Revolution 1:56:18

4+ y ago1:56:18

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Hey everyone! For Episode 16, I am joined by Dr. Bruce DeHart, recently retired after a great career at UNC-Pembroke. In this episode we're talking about the October Revolution-the revolution that brought about the creation of the Soviet Union. We'll talk about a larger than life cast of characters, the groups that fought for power and influence du…

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Episode 15: "We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people"-The History of Policing in the Southern United States 1:36:48

4+ y ago1:36:48

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Yes everyone, we're doing TWO EPISODES this week! In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Brandon T. Jett (@drbrandonjett1) and we talk about the history of policing in the Southern United States. We talk about where southern police departments have their roots, how departments enforced the Black Codes and Jim Crow, their state-sponsored violence agains…

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Episode 14: "Our revenge will be the laughter of our children"-the film "Hunger," Bobby Sands, and the legacy of the Hunger Strikers of '81 1:16:05

4+ y ago1:16:05

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Hey everyone, YDKH is back! After a small sabbatical due to so technical issues, we finally have episode 14 up. Now, this is going to be a bit different: this was a recording of YDKH's first Twitch stream, where I was joined by my friend Dick Warlock of Left Flank Veterans (@notdickwarlock, @leftflankvets) where we talked about the movie "Hunger," …

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Episode 13: “The deeds of the occupier and occupied alike suggest that there come cruel times when to save a nation’s deepest values one must disobey the state.” Vichy, France 1:38:20

4+ y ago1:38:20

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On Episode 13, I'm joined by Dr. Cameron Zinsou (@cgzinsou on Twitter) where we talk about the Vichy regime. In this episode, we talk about Armistice forces, the political ideology of the Vichy regime, the difference between collaboration and accommodation, how important Operation: Dragoon was to the liberation of France, and how the legacy of the …

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Episode 12: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part..." The IOC and the Olympic Games 1:25:23

4+ y ago1:25:23

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For Episode 12, YDKH is talking the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and the Olympic Games! I'm joined by Dr. Johanna Mellis (@JohannaMellis) of Ursinus University and a specialist in the interactions between Hungarian athletes, socialist sports leaders, and the IOC as a microcosm of relations between society, the socialist state, and internat…

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Episode 11: "My experiences and the people I lost in the war remain so vivid for me because of the pain."-Dutch memory in the Second World War and the Holocaust, 1940-1945 1:19:49

4+ y ago1:19:49

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For episode 11, I am joined by Dr. Jazmine Contreras (@jazzydomenique on Twitter), and we talk about the memory of World War II and the Holocaust in the collective Dutch memory. We'll give a little background about the initial German invasion, and jump right into Dutch resistance, the Nazi occupation, Westerbork, and how the Holocaust is discussed …

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Episode 10: "...a conforming reorganization of all social, political, and industrial interests..." The U.S. Women's Suffrage Movement 2:08:54

4+ y ago2:08:54

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Welcome! On episode 10 I am joined by Dr. Rachel Michelle Gunter (@PHDRachel on Twitter), a historian who specializes in black, immigrant, and service members' voting rights, and, most importantly for the show, the Suffrage Movement. We'll talk about the various organizations that helped further the movement, the people involved in it, as well as h…

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Episode 9: "We rode in blood up to the knees..." The First Crusade 2:07:25

4+ y ago2:07:25

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Hey everyone! For episode 9, I'm joined by Dr. Thomas Lecaque (@tlecaque) of Grand View University, and we're talking about the First Crusade! Join us as we talk about popes (yes, multiple popes!), people with regular names like Robert and Stephen, and those with other names like Raymond, Godfrey, and Tancred while we take a tour of the coastal Lev…

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Episode 8: "Home to the palace to die..." Late Imperial Russia, 1860-1917 1:45:07

4+ y ago1:45:07

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Hey everyone! On this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Anthony Johnson (associate professor of history at UNCP), where we sit down and talk about the late Imperial period in Russia. We'll dive into the background of the Romanovs, the abolishing of serfdom, the Russo-Japanese War, the 1905 Revolution...and something happened in 1917 that saw the rise of t…

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Episode 7: "John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave..." The Run-Up to the U.S. Civil War, 1845-1860 1:33:01

4+ y ago1:33:01

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Hello everyone! For episode 7, I'm joined by Trae Wisecarver (@wrestlingclio on the bird app, and host of the Outlaw History channel on YouTube) joins me to discuss what happened before the U.S. Civil War. While most of us know about Civil War, we don't know what really drove the nation to break apart. So we'll talk the Mexican-American War, multip…

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Episode 6: "...what little we do get, we can't get till our children are dying of hunger..." The U.S.-Dakota War 1:52:36

4+ y ago1:52:36

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Today, I'm joined by John Legg (@thejohnlegg), a PhD student at George Mason University, to talk about the U.S.-Dakota War in 1862. We'll talk about this short conflict, but more importantly the larger legacy of the war on the Dakota people. We also get into why reconciliation will be almost impossible for the Dakota and Minnesotans, and the proble…

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Episode 5: "March or Die!" The French Foreign Legion 2:40:35

4+ y ago2:40:35

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For episode 5, I'm joined by my good friend Dermot Cosgrove (@DermotNCosgrove), a former Legionnaire, to talk about the French Foreign Legion. We'll talk about the formation of the Legion, Cameron, and how the French government STILL doesn't want Legion Paras anywhere near France. We'll take a bird's eye view on the storied history of the Legion, w…

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Episode 4: The Vietnam War 1:50:23

4+ y ago1:50:23

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In this episode, I'm joined by my favorite Twitterstorian Dr. Rob Thompson (@DrRobThompson on Twitter) as we take a look at the Vietnam War.

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Episode 3: The Black Panther Party for Self Defense 2:17:50

4+ y ago2:17:50

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For this third episode, I'm joined by Dr. David Walton, Director of Global Black Studies and assistant professor of history at Western Carolina University. In this episode, we talk about the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. We discuss the revolutionaries behind the movement, as well as what various levels of government did to undermine the par…

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Episode 2: The Cultural Revolution 1:23:29

4+ y ago1:23:29

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On this episode, I'm joined by Dr. James Hudson, assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina-Pembroke and Chinese scholar. We're going to talk about the Cultural Revolution, the people involved, the human costs, and the effects it has had on China into the present day.

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Episode 1: Armenia and Artsakh 1:26:26

4+ y ago1:26:26

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Hey everyone! This is the first episode of You Don't Know History! In this episode, I'm joined by author ("Citizen of Earth," "The Great Traitor," and "The Hooligans of Kandahar") and host of the Lions Led By Donkeys podcast Joe Kassabian, and we talk about the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the territory that is know as Nagorno-Karabakh b…

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Scholarcast 61: Style and context -Traditional Irish Harping 32:16

8y ago32:16

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This Scholarcast is an extract from Helen Lawlor’s book, Irish Harping: 1900-2010 (Four Courts Press, 2012). This study provides a musical ethnography and a history of the Irish harp. It gives a socio-cultural and musical analysis of the music and song associated with all Irish harp styles, including traditional style, song to harp accompaniment, a…

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Scholarcast 61: Style and context -Traditional Irish Harping 32:16

8y ago32:16

32:16

This Scholarcast is an extract from Helen Lawlor's book, Irish Harping: 1900-2010 (Four Courts Press, 2012). This study provides a musical ethnography and a history of the Irish harp. It gives a socio-cultural and musical analysis of the music and song associated with all Irish harp styles, including traditional style, song to harp accompaniment, a…

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Scholarcast 60: On Development, Waste and Ghosts 37:02

9+ y ago37:02

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Movements in ecocriticism that call for links to be made with postcolonialism challenge us, here in Ireland and outside of it, to do work that has not come naturally. As critics like Rob Nixon have pointed out, ecocriticism and postcolonialism were, in fact, often at odds with each other as the fields arose, operating at a disconnect.…

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Scholarcast 59: Environmental Narratives, Climate Change and Sovereignty Loss 22:49

9+ y ago22:49

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This episode argues for a politicization of cultural and literary critiques of environmental issues in Ireland. It demonstrates methods through which Irish Studies can enter into a creative correspondence with the growing field of Environmental Humanities scholarship.By Malcolm Sen

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Scholarcast 58: Taking the Floor: Dance, Nation and Gender in the Irish Revival 59:46

9+ y ago59:46

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This episode explores the process whereby dance was transformed from a practice enjoyed for its own sake into ‘a conscious symbolic act' of Irish nationhood during the Revival. Drawing on the work of dance scholars and historians, Barbara O'Connor examines the role of the Gaelic League in developing an‘authentic’ national dance canon that called fo…

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Scholarcast 57: James Joyce, Treeless Hills and the Night of the Big Wind 45:35

10y ago45:35

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The fall of the great forests of Ireland provided James Joyce with a rich literary trope laden with cultural memory and socio-political resonances, which he utilized throughout his works and most fully in Finnegans Wake. The trope taps into a chain of historical events well-rehearsed by nationalist rhetoric and thus it is compatible with Joyce's in…

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Scholarcast 56: Revival and Visual Art – Harry Clarke's Geneva Window 45:53

10y ago45:53

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The episode focuses on one of the most elaborate artworks to be made in Ireland in the 1920s, Harry Clarke's Geneva Window. The work, intended for the League of Nations, illustrates extracts from the texts of fifteen Irish writers. Clarke's innovative approach to the technique of stained glass and his wide knowledge of ancient and modern art and li…

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Scholarcast 55: Yeats, Revival and the Temporalities of Modernism 48:18

10y ago48:18

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This lecture puts forward the idea that Yeats's Revivalism lies at the heart of his modernism rather than at the "pre-modernist" periphery of his early career. For Yeats, as for so many of his contemporaries, Revival was not a form of nostalgia, in which the past was cut off from experience; nor was it nostalgia in the sense of longing of a time th…

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Scholarcast 54: The Revival and the City in James Stephens's Dublin Fiction 35:32

10y ago35:32

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Examining the infiltration of new notions of urbanism into Irish culture in this era, in particular through the Housing and Town Planning Association of Ireland, this talk looks at the Dublin-based writings of James Stephens to show how revivalist writers were responsive to the peculiarities of Irish urban experience.…

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Scholarcast 53: Supply Chains: Labour, Poverty, and the the Nonhuman Animal of Joyce's Ulysses 29:40

10y ago29:40

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In this episode Adam Putz explores complementary representations of labour and poverty in Ulysses which disintegrate category distinctions like human and nonhuman.By Adam Putz

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Scholarcast 52: Gaelic Culture from the Child's Perspective - The Diaries of Kerry Schoolgirls (1916-1918) 26:28

10y ago26:28

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One of the most complicated and persistent questions in the study of childhood in the past relates to the experiences of individual children. How can we know how children perceived the world around them when they have left little written evidence of their own experience and interpretations of their world? In this lecture, Riona NicCongáil attempts …

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Scholarcast 51: 'The IFSC as a Way of Organizing Nature': Neoliberal Ecology and Irish Literature 43:40

10y ago43:40

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In this episode Sharae Deckard analyses the unprecedented commoditization of new ecological commons under neoliberal capitalism and reflects on the importance of environmental humanities approaches to historicize conceptions of environment and configurations of environment.By Sharae Deckard

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Scholarcast 49: Silence and Solitude: The absence of intimacy in Roddy Doyle's The Snapper 21:58

10y ago21:58

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In spite of the linguistic license that defines Roddy Doyle’s The Snapper, the characters maintain crucial silences throughout in relation to meaningful issues. This episode examines the system of self-imposed censorship that operates among the female characters in particular and how it leads to isolation and an absence of true intimacy.…

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Scholarcast 50: The Van 23:55

10y ago23:55

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The Van, the final novel in Roddy Doyle’s Barrytown trilogy, explores the physical, psychological and social impact of unemployment on the protagonist, Jimmy Rabbitte Sr. Having been laid off from his job as a plasterer, Jimmy struggles to find a new role for himself within the family that is not connected to being the breadwinner.…

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Scholarcast Series 13: Dublin, One City One Book 2015 - The Barrytown Trilogy 3:20

10y ago3:20

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Roddy Doyle is perhaps the single most successful novelist of this period, gaining an audience far beyond the environs of Dublin's Northside where most of his writing is set. Along with the emergence of rock group U2, Doyle represents a brash generational shift, a confident certitude in his generation's worth and ability. His literary focus is not …

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Scholarcast 47: The Barrytown Trilogy: An Introduction to Roddy Doyle's Dublin 20:53

10y ago20:53

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What has become known as the Barrytown trilogy: The Commitments (1988), The Snapper (1990) and The Van (1991), have become iconic in Irish culture. Centred on one family, the Rabbittes, Roddy Doyle makes reference to current events like the 1990 Soccer World Cup, and in dealing with the issues of teenage pregnancy and unemployment captures the mood…

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Scholarcast 48: Everybody Speaks: Utopia and Polyphony in The Commitments 21:33

10y ago21:33

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Fredric Jameson proposes that a "utopia" is a political idea that hopes to transcend, or exist outside, politics, but that must, inevitably, begin inside politics – at "the moment of the suspension of the political," the political must inevitably return. This holds true for the utopian imagined community – a "Dublin soul band" – proposed and tested…

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Scholarcast Series 12: Modalities of Revival 2:40

10+ y ago2:40

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In Irish Studies, the term Irish Revival broadly defines the cultural nationalist movement which thrived in Ireland from the late nineteenth-century up until the establishment of the Irish Free State. It refers to the pre-Independence period when powerful narratives of de-colonization and cultural reaffirmation mobilized communities both locally an…

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Scholarcast 46: Children and the Irish Cultural Revival 32:04

10+ y ago32:04

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This episode discusses how and why various Irish nationalist individuals and organisations attempted to engage children and youth in the Irish cultural revival, particularly in the early twentieth century. It also explores the link between the promotion of a specifically Irish cultural identity and the political socialisation of Irish nationalist y…

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Scholarcast Series 11: Irish Studies and the Environmental Humanities 2:40

10+ y ago2:40

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Every reader and scholar of Irish literature is familiar with its extensive genealogy of nature writing, and a 'sense of place' found across a great variety of texts. While not unique to Ireland such a rich heritage has produced some of the most enduring and exciting literary and cultural criticisms. However, given our contemporary concerns with en…

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Scholarcast 45: Salmon Leap 13:48

10+ y ago13:48

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In this episode, Eamonn Ryan deliberates on the collective leap which individuals and nation states need to make for a sustainable, habitable future. He argues that individuals cannot be faced with moral choices about the environment on a daily basis. Instead, he indicates that it is through sound governance that environmental habits are nurtured e…

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Scholarcast 44: Imaginary Bonnets with Real Bees in Them 1:06:46

11y ago1:06:46

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In this lecture Paula Meehan delivers the Ireland Chair of Poetry Lecture, 2014. The Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust was set up in 1998 and is jointly held between Queen's University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.…