This week was Martin Luther King Day, which is a really important day. We absolutely should celebrate the life and work of Dr. King. But it always irks me a little (okay, a lot) to see white people on Facebook throw up out-of-context quotes from MLK without any thought to what his work was about or what he was fighting for then go right back to straight up supporting systems of white supremacy in their everyday lives. [Read More]
Episode Thirty-Seven: Words Matter
Last week I argued that a Clinton election would not have saved America from her systemic problems. So her election wouldn’t have, in the long run, made that much of a difference. But this week has shown us how much of a difference Trump has made. [Read More]
Episode Thirty-Six – Imagined History
Earlier in the holiday season I asked Kairoticast listeners what they would like to hear from us during this seasonal time and one listener recommended a uchronia or a counterfactual. I’m not prepared to do any Middle-Earth style world building, but I thought in light of the upcoming electoral college events, and future inauguration I would defer to my listeners and take a minute to think about what the world would be like if certain events had gone differently. What would our world look like? So let’s make every historian we know mad and think creatively for a few minutes. [Read More]
Episode Thirty-Five – A Very Nietzsche New Year
This year is a bit different on that front. We’re not just putting away a bad year. 2020 wasn’t just kind of gloomy. It wasn’t just a rough patch for me. The whole world had a bad year. America specifically had a really bad year. And we’re hopeful that 2021 will be better, but we are afraid to be certain. Everybody is thrilled to see 2020 go. But nobody knows what to think about 2021. It’s a different kind of New Year. And we can’t even get together to celebrate the end of this god-awful travesty of a year. We just have to watch it end from where we are, far away from each other, and hope 2021 brings brighter days and that in a year we’ll be in a more hopeful spot. [Read More]
Episode Thirty-Four – Rhetoric and Humanity
It’s a sentimental time of year for some people. I am recording this on Winter Solstice, which holds significant meaning for some people, and is an important night historically, traditionally, and spiritually for people all around the world. Some people have been celebrating the Festival of Lights recently. Kwanzaa is right around the corner. Christmas is this week. Festivus for the rest of us, if you like the pop culture approach. A lot of the world’s culture’s see this time of year as a significant turning point in the calendar and have marked it with a holiday of some variety. And that might not be you. You might not partake in any kind of holiday festivities or beliefs, and that’s okay, too. [Read More]