Today’s episode of the Extra Credit podcast looks at the origin story and ongoing vitality of another (extraordinary) podcast: 15 Minute History, now in its 12th year of life and produced by our colleagues in the Department of History. It is (per their website) “devoted to short, accessible discussions of important topics in world history, United States history, and Texas history.”
More to the point, it is one of the only podcasts in the United States that 1) is funded and produced by an academic unit (rather than by an individual academic doing their own thing) and 2) has stood the test of time. Over the years thousands of departments, centers, institutes, and initiatives have had the brilliant idea to start a podcast on their topic or discipline; almost none of those podcasts endure. 15 Minute History abides.
Early episodes covered topics including the Russian Revolution, the Haitian revolution, the Cold War, and the Buddha. The most recent episode was on Black Labor in Boston in the Civil War Era and featured guest host Jaqueline Jones, a retired UT history professor whose book on the topic was recently awarded an obscure prize known as the Pulitzer.
Today my guests are Christopher Rose, who helped found the podcast back in 2012 and co-hosted it for eight years before joining Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas, as their program head of history, and Benjamin Wright, current host of the podcast, alumnus of the department, former speechwriter for UT presidents, and all around communications maestro.
Listen on for a conversation about the challenges of developing and sustaining a podcast, the internal and external politics of trying to talk about fraught issues in an institutional context, and the often porous — but nonetheless real — boundaries between our multiple existences and identities as employees, students, and scholars.
History of the World in 15 Minutes: Part I