The Road to Now

Updated: 10 Nov 2025 • 436 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

Show episodes

A decade after Ken Burns decided it was time to take on the American Revolution, the film is finished and premieres on your local PBS station on Sunday, November 16! In this episode, we talk with Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, who directed the six-part series alongside Burns, to find out more about the stories and p

55 min
00:00
55:46
No file found

Wakara was a Ute leader whose power stretched across western North America long before the US claimed the land on which he lived. In this episode, Max Perry Mueller joins us to discuss his new book, Wakara's America: The Life & Legacy of a Native Founder of the American West, and how a story of the west that excludes N

57 min
00:00
57:58
No file found

America's bookstores have always been about more than just books, but the role they play in American society has changed over the years. In this episode, Evan Friss joins us for a conversation about his New York Times Bestseller, The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore (Viking, 2023), and the unique place tha

62 min
00:00
01:02:44
No file found

National Constitution Center President & CEO Jeffrey Rosen returns to the show to discuss his new book The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America, and the ways that the contrasting visions of the founders live on in our political debates today.   Make sure to che

55 min
00:00
55:23
No file found

Teaching history to a middle schooler is a very different task than teaching a university student, but those doing the teaching have a lot in common (and could probably learn a lot from each other). In this episode, recorded as part of a live event sponsored by the Tennessee Council for History Education, Ben is joined

53 min
00:00
53:35
No file found

The War on Terror that followed the 9/11 attacks took place on battlefields across the globe, but it also took place in our legal system. In this episode, CNN's Jake Tapper joins us to discuss his new book, Race Against Terror: Chasing an Al Qaeda Killer at the Dawn of the Forever War, and how dedicated public servants

58 min
00:00
58:21
No file found