The Road to Now

Updated: 26 May 2025 • 411 episodes
www.theroadtonow.com

Bob Crawford (The Avett Brothers) & Dr. Ben Sawyer (MTSU History) share conversations with great thinkers from a variety of backgrounds – historians, artists, legal scholars, political figures and more –who help us uncover the many roads that run between past and present. For more information, visit TheRoadToNow.com If you'd like to support our work, join us on Patreon: Patreon.com/TheRoadToNow

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Ben & Bob sit down with friend and community builder Will Acuff for a conversation about how to find the good in life. Will founded the non-profit Corner to Corner, which “co-creates economic participation with underestimated Nashvillians,” alongside his wife Tiffany, and recently published his first book No Elevator t

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The Good Friday Agreements of 1998 marked a turning point in Irish history, bringing an end to three decades known as The Troubles and laying a course for a better future for the people of Ireland. In this historian Mark Doyle and Friends of Sinn Féin Executive Director Greg O’Loughlin join us for a conversation about

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A lot of Americans only know Eurovision via Will Farrell’s film, “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga,” which capture some of Eurovision’s over-the-top aspects,  but the history of the annual event actually shines light on some of the biggest cultural, social and political developments in post-World War II

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With our live show in Washington, DC coming up on May 29, we thought it’d be fun to share one of our previous live recordings from Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, NC w/ guests Molly Worthen, Doug Heye & Rufus Edmisten!   Dr. Molly Worthen (Department of History at UNC-Chapel Hill), Doug Heye (CNN/former RNC Communication Dir

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John Cale is probably best known as a founding member of Velvet underground, but the four years he spent alongside Lou Reed represent a small fraction of the influence Cale has had on modern music. In this episode, recorded live at MTSU’s Center for Popular Music, Ben talks to his friend and colleague Mark Doyle about

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The American Historical Association was chartered by Congress in 1884 and has played an essential role in helping foster and spread great historical research. AHA incoming Executive Director Sarah Weicksel and pioneering public historian Ed Ayers join us for a discussion of AHA’s history, its current projects and the d

56 min
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