BackStory

BackStory is a weekly public podcast hosted by U.S. historians Ed Ayers, Brian Balogh, Nathan Connolly and Joanne Freeman. We're based in Charlottesville, Va. at Virginia Humanities. There’s the history you had to learn, and the history you want to learn - that’s where BackStory comes in. Each week BackStory takes a topic that people are talking about and explores it through the lens of American history. Through stories, interviews, and conversations with our listeners, BackStory makes history engaging and fun.

  • 1 minute 44 seconds
    Anatomy of a Geo-Block

    In a world where episode content shouldn't be heard everywhere, only one thing stands between that and total disaster...

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    14 August 2025, 2:45 pm
  • 1 minute 44 seconds
    All About Geo-Fencing

    This episode is all about the fascinating world of geo-fencing. This practice allows content distributors to either allow or prevent digital consumers from accessing their content, based on their location in the world.

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    13 August 2025, 3:45 pm
  • 1 minute 44 seconds
    Amazing video episode

    Amazing video episode

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    18 June 2025, 4:00 am
  • 58 minutes 26 seconds
    Test Audio Episode

    Test Audio Episode

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    18 June 2025, 4:00 am
  • 1 minute 23 seconds
    Test Episode

    test episode

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    5 October 2023, 4:17 pm
  • 1 minute 17 seconds
    Test Episode

    Test

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    4 October 2023, 8:02 pm
  • 1 hour 19 minutes
    331: The End of the Road: BackStory and the History of Finales in America
    On this final episode of BackStory, Nathan, Brian, Joanne and Ed explore different kinds of finales throughout American history. They also consider what it’s like being a part of their own finale and how finales can sometimes lead to new beginnings. 
    3 July 2020, 12:00 pm
  • 6 minutes 21 seconds
    Teaser: BackStory and the History of Finales in America
    Coach Tony Bennett knows a thing or two about big finales. He’s the head coach of the men’s basketball team at the University of Virginia. This is a clip from Brian's conversation with Coach Bennett about the power of sports and how you have to be able to accept the outcome of a big game, whether it’s a buzzer-beater win or a heartbreaking loss. 

    The full episode is coming to you this Friday, July 3. 
    30 June 2020, 8:22 pm
  • 51 minutes 13 seconds
    330: Best of BackStory: The Time the People Picked
    As BackStory nears the end of its production, we’ve asked our listeners to call in with moments from the show’s history and compile their very own “Best of BackStory.”
    We got some great responses covering a range of topics, each of them meaningful to the present moment in their own way.
    So in this best of BackStory, we present three of our listener’s favorite interviews from the show. You’ll learn about the early U.S. Postal Service, and hear from residents of Hamlet, North Carolina as we explore the painful memory of a 1991 tragedy. Then, you’ll discover the long evolution of the Confederate flag’s design.
    26 June 2020, 4:08 pm
  • 18 minutes 39 seconds
    Introducing: Seizing Freedom
    Coming Feb 2021…
    In most history classes, students learn that the Emancipation Proclamation and Union victories “freed the slaves.” But ending slavery in America required much more than battlefield victories and official declarations. Black people battled for their own freedom, taking incredible risks for a country that had actively denied their right to it. And after the Civil War, they made freedom real by organizing for equality and justice.

    On Seizing Freedom, you’ll hear stories of freedom taking and freedom making, in the words of those who did both. Drawing on stories from diaries, newspapers, letters, and speeches, we’ll recreate voices that have been muted time and time again.

    This excerpt is from the first episode of the series. It tells the story of those who escaped slavery to enlist with the Union Army—an army that wasn’t particularly interested in having them.
    Subscribe to the entire series here.
    24 June 2020, 6:00 pm
  • 39 minutes 52 seconds
    329: Great, Small and Other Expectations: Charles Dickens and His History with America
    Charles Dickens died 150 years ago this month. A famous chronicler and critic of English industrial capitalism, Dickens was also immensely popular in the United States. But in an age of widespread debate about slave versus wage labor, his writings meant different things to different readers. 
    Music: 
    Bright White by Podington Bear Outmoded Waltz by Podington Bear Quatrefoil by Podington Bear Theme in G by Podington Bear Refraction by Podington Bear Stages of Awakening by Podington Bear Associations by Podington Bear Arboles by Podington Bear
    19 June 2020, 4:01 pm
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