Ethel Kimball’s Crime Spree, with Joan Ilacqua (episode 364)

This week’s episode is all about a career criminal in Boston in the 19-teens and roaring twenties known as Ethel Kimball. Ethel is known to history through the many newspaper articles about her crimes, including fraud and grand theft auto, but it’s her life between the stories that makes her interesting. She lived and worked as a man for years at a time, marrying three different women along the way. Ethel’s story gives us a chance to reflect on how we talk about gender and sexuality when we don’t know how historic figures would talk about themselves.  Joan Ilacqua of Queer History Boston helps us figure out how to navigate the story.


Continue reading Ethel Kimball’s Crime Spree, with Joan Ilacqua (episode 364)

A Glorious Fate: The Life and Legacy of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, with Kevin Levin (episode 363)

Historian Kevin M. Levin joins us in this episode to discuss his new biography, A Glorious Fate: The Life and Legacy of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. Most of us know Shaw primarily as the tragic hero portrayed by Matthew Broderick in the film “Glory,” or from the iconic monument standing opposite the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Street. But as Levin reveals, the real man behind the bronze was far more complex… a directionless young Boston Brahmin who initially rejected his elite family’s radical abolitionist views, struggled to find his purpose, and ultimately wrestled with the brutal realities of battlefield command and the deep-seated racial tensions of his era.

Together, we trace Shaw’s life story, from his privileged upbringing and early military service in the Shenandoah Valley to his fateful leadership of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first Black regiment raised in the north, and his death during the bloody assault on Fort Wagner in July 1863. Levin breaks down how Shaw’s postwar legend was shaped by his mother Sarah, how his family embraced his burial in a mass grave with his fallen Black soldiers as an enduring symbol of racial equality, and how public memory of the 54th evolved through books, monuments, and film.


Continue reading A Glorious Fate: The Life and Legacy of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, with Kevin Levin (episode 363)

Working 9 to 5 in Boston, with Ellen Cassedy (episode 362)

In this episode, we sit down with Ellen Cassedy, co-founder of the 9to5 movement and author of Working 9 to 5: A women’s movement, a labor union, and the iconic movie, to explore how a group of frustrated Boston typists and secretaries sparked a nationwide revolution for women’s labor rights in the 1970s. What began as informal lunchtime discussions about low pay, invisible work, and rampant workplace indignities quickly transformed into a powerful organizing force that challenged major corporations, won landmark back-pay settlements, and eventually birthed a dedicated union district for office workers.

Cassedy walks us through the nuts and bolts of early grassroots organizing—from handing out underground newsletters at T stations and distributing guerrilla employment surveys to hosting high-profile forums with leaders like Ted Kennedy. The conversation offers a captivating look at how these Boston-led efforts directly inspired the iconic 1980 Jane Fonda film and Dolly Parton hit song 9 to 5, while underscoring how organized labor, gender equality, and collective action continue to shape the modern workplace.


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Introducing “Queer Boston’s Pursuit of Happiness,” with Joan Ilacqua (episode 361)

For months now, listeners have heard me talking about another podcast I’ve been working on, but I haven’t shared much about what it is. This week, we introduce the brand new podcast “Queer Boston’s Pursuit of Happiness.” It’s hosted by Joan Ilacqua, Executive Director of Queer History Boston, and she joins us in this episode for a brief interview.  After that, we will play the first episode of her show, which is all about LGBTQ+ Bostonians who challenged gender and sexuality norms during the era of the American Revolution. I’m really proud of the work we have been doing, and I can’t wait to share it with you!


Continue reading Introducing “Queer Boston’s Pursuit of Happiness,” with Joan Ilacqua (episode 361)

Before Boston: Early Englishmen on the Bay (episode 360)

Before John Winthrop’s Puritan Arbella fleet made landfall in 1630 and set the standard narrative of Massachusetts Bay, a rowdy and disparate cast of English traders, eccentric recluses, and ill-fated opportunists was already carving out a precarious presence around Boston Harbor. In the decade before the Puritans named the colony they laid claim to “Massachusetts Bay,” the shores of the Bay were shaped by European fishing fleets, catastrophic epidemics that devastated indigenous communities, and early, mostly-failed attempts at permanent English habitation. From the ill-fated commercial colony at Wessagussett to Thomas Morton’s egalitarian “consociates” at Merrymount, these early experiments tested the bounds of survival, trade, and diplomacy on the Shawmut peninsula.

In this episode, we step back before the founding date on the city seal to explore the forgotten decades of pre-Puritan English settlement. We will trace how early figures like Samuel Maverick at Winnisimmet and William Blaxton at Shawmut established their lonely outposts, navigate the tangled land claims created by competing charters, and examine the grim realities of early European impact on the region’s indigenous nations.


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Warning Out in early New England, with Jonathan Beecher Field (episode 359)

In this episode, Clemson professor Jonathan Beecher Field helps us explore the history of poor support in early New England and the surprising practice known as “warning out.” In the 17th- and 18th-century, Boston and other New England towns tied public relief strictly to legal inhabitancy, a status similar to the modern concept of birthright citizenship, but on a hyperlocal level. Those without established local ties or the financial capital to post a cash bond were routinely “warned out,” given two weeks to leave, and escorted beyond town borders to prevent them from becoming a financial burden on the town and its residents.

The conversation draws parallels between early colonial policies and modern approaches to poverty, examining how historical residency restrictions rhyme with contemporary anti-homeless architecture, municipal sweeps, and broader debates over who deserves social support. From the systemic exclusion of Black and Indigenous residents to the way early New Englanders decided who was deserving of poor support and who deserved to be warned out, Professor Field’s research reveals how early New England town structures and Calvinist mindsets mirrored and continue to shape our modern attitudes toward poverty, displacement, and public responsibility.


Continue reading Warning Out in early New England, with Jonathan Beecher Field (episode 359)

Boston in 50 Maps, with Andy Woodruff (episode 358)

Andy Woodruff’s new book Boston in 50 Maps goes beyond familiar compilations of public-domain historic maps of Boston, Woodruff’s work offers an engaging, data-driven look at the Hub through 50 original, modern maps.  Andy’s maps reveal layers of Boston’s history, changing demographics, and hyper-local culture, from the myth of streets laid out by 17th century cows to the city’s long lost territories. In this conversation, we dive into fascinating corners of the area’s past and present, including what triple-deckers and houses of pizza tell us about historical immigration patterns, why residents can’t seem to agree on the boundaries of their neighborhoods, which areas had better transit access a century ago, and exactly how saturated we are in Dunkin Donuts franchises.  Together, we explore how data-driven cartography offers a whole new lens on local history, revealing the stories that both historic maps and traditional prose histories often miss. 

Continue reading Boston in 50 Maps, with Andy Woodruff (episode 358)

Hamilton and Burr in Boston (episode 357)

For fans of the Hamilton musical, many members of the cast of characters have appeared on the podcast in the past. We talked about the years when Angelica Schuyler lived under an assumed name in Boston; Thomas Jefferson’s epic shopping spree in Boston; the Marquis de Lafayette’s many visits to Boston, culminating in his 1825 trip where he carried a keg of soil from Bunker Hill back to France to be buried under; and (because he commanded much of the siege of Boston) George Washington has been on the show a LOT in 2026. Even General “instead of me” Charles Lee made an appearance in our episode about the Marblehead schooner named after him.

Over all those episodes, the stars of the show, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, have not appeared in Boston. In this episode, we are rectifying that omission. We will be talking about Hamilton and Burr’s fateful final meeting in Boston, as well as each of their first visits to our fair city.


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Rebels at Sea Revisited, with Eric Jay Dolin (episode 356)

In this episode, we mark the return of the tall ships to Boston Harbor when Sail Boston kicks off on July 11.  We’re also continuing the Revolutionary War theme that we keep coming back to in this year of 250th anniversaries.  This time, however, I’m not talking about a specific anniversary date.  Instead, I am going to play my interview with author Eric Jay Dolin about his 2022 book Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution.  Back in November, we had an episode about the schooner Lee that was commanded by the mysterious captain Manley.  It was one of the very first ships of the Continental Navy, but especially early in the war, the American cause relied on private vessels and private crews.  Some of the tall ships we see this month will be recreating these vessels, which were known as privateers.  Privateers were civilian ships that were outfitted for war by optimistic investors, with volunteer crews who were willing to risk their lives fighting for a share of the profits.  From the mouth of Boston Harbor to the very shores of Britain, these private warships sailed in search of rich English merchant vessels, while risking the lives and freedom of their crews.  While their role is mostly forgotten today, Eric will explain how central privateer crews were to the Continental cause, with a special focus on the many privateers that were crewed by New Englanders. 


Continue reading Rebels at Sea Revisited, with Eric Jay Dolin (episode 356)

Fifty Years Later: Where’s Boston? with Lauren Graves (episode 355)

In this episode, we’re turning the clocks back to 1976, when America and Boston were in the midst of a massive celebration marking the Bicentennial.  While other ideas were considered and discarded, Boston would mark the bicentennial with a series of thoughtful events around the city throughout 1976.  To highlight the living city, photographer Constantine Manos was charged with a mission “to photograph the people of the city, of all walks of life, for an exhibition and book to commemorate the 1976 bi-centenntial of American independence from England.”  The result of his effort was Where’s Boston, described as “a multi‐image, quadraphonic sound show and a graphic display of Boston today.”  Over the course of the summer of ’76, tens of thousands of Bostonians and visitors streamed into the exhibit hall at the Prudential Center to see themselves reflected in the photographer’s lens.  This summer, the Boston Athenaeum will revisit that optimistic vision of Boston in 1976 with the exhibition Where’s Boston? 50 Years Later.  In this episode, curator Lauren Graves chats with Nikki about the project.


Continue reading Fifty Years Later: Where’s Boston? with Lauren Graves (episode 355)