MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — An MTSU historian and
one of the co-founders of folk- rock’s The
Avett Brothers will launch the second season of their interview-based
history podcast, “The Road to Now,”
Monday, July 10.
Benjamin Sawyer, a lecturer in MTSU’s Department of History, and Bob Crawford, the multi-instrumentalist
best known for his exuberant bass playing in the Grammy-nominated band, began
“The Road to Now” in May 2016 by investigating the history behind current
events.
In the first
60 episodes of their podcast, they spoke with historians, journalists and
politicians on topics ranging from President Donald Trump’s feud with the
National Park Service to North Carolina’s controversial “bathroom bill”
restricting transgender people’s restroom usage to allegations of Russian
interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
The
second season of “The Road to Now” will kick off July 10 with a series
investigating the energy industry that looks at the history of coal, oil,
sustainable and nuclear energy.
“Politics
and special interests have become almost as important as technology in shaping
energy policy in the United States,” said Sawyer, who specializes in the history
of economic systems with a geographic focus on Russia and the United States. “We
want to understand the history of these industries to see how this happened.”
Another
series of interviews later this season will examine the causes and legacy of
the Civil War.
Sawyer,
who grew up with Avett Brothers co-founders Scott and Seth Avett and their tour
manager, Dane Honeycutt, met Crawford through the band. The men quickly discovered that they
share an obsession for events, characters and trends of American history.
"I
would sit in the band van reading 700-page history book after 700-page history
book, and Dane kept telling me about his friend studying history in Michigan who I
just had to meet,” Crawford recalled. “Ben and I finally met one night in
Detroit a few hours before a show and drank coffee and talked pretty much until
show time."
A preview
of “The Road to Now” second season is available at http://youtu.be/b1XVgBCND5E. Portions of the video were shot on the
MTSU campus during one of Sawyer’s classes in the Bragg Media and Entertainment
Building and the co-hosts’ live podcast interview with former U.S. Ambassador
to the Soviet Union Jack Matlock Jr., all with audio help from Department of Recording Industry
professor John Merchant and his
students and logistics assistance from Department
of History professor Susan
Myers-Shirk and executive aide Kelle
Knight.
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