Happy Birthday to Us
Celebrating a year of deep dives, hot takes, and general shenanigans
A year ago today at 6am eastern I was nursing coffee as the first two episodes of the Historians At The Movies Podcast went live. In all honesty, I had no idea what to expect. The pod had been the culmination of several months of work as I explored what it might be, lined up some guests willing to take a chance that I wouldn’t embarass them, and worked with Intrepid Producer Fletcher Powell to design the show’s content, structure, and sound. I’ve written about this before, but I was extremely hesistant to create a podcast, since so many existed already and it felt almost cliche. I didn’t even know what to expect. Would anyone listen? What was good? Would people come back? This was actually a bit nervewrecking. But proceed we did at 6am and Historians At The Movies Podcast was born into the world.
A year later, here we are standing with over 25,000 downloads to our credit. Folks have been finding the pod and you’ve been telling them about it. The numbers have grown steadily since our opening episodes and continue to show continued growth. It is a really exciting time for the Podcast and for the Historians At The Movies community in general.
I’ve always believed that HATM belongs to the community. Yes, I run it and all that, but I’ve always thought that what makes this space different is the sense of ownership that each and every person—regardless of how much they join in on Sunday nights or how many episodes they listen to—has due to being vested in the sense of welcome and friendship we’ve built over the last five and a half years. I want us to be different. In that sense, I thought perhaps I might offer something of a shareholders meeting here for you, let you know what we are doing, lessons we’ve learned, and where we are going. I know a lot of pods keep their information as a tightly guarded secret, but that’s never been our style here. I want you to be proud of what we are building here, because you make it possible. That said, here is your first annual State of the Pod.
Numbers
It is as I am typing this, 8:14pm Mountain Time. As of this moment, people have downloaded the podcast 26,165 times. This is beyond my wildest dreams for our first year. As I have told you before, you guys are insane and I love you for it.
Our biggest episode has actually been the one you suggested, with Tyler Anbinder’s visit to talk about Gangs of New York. What is really exciting is that of the most five episodes, most of them are recent, including one released eight days ago. Folks are finding the pod in bigger numbers. (The numbers are slightly skewed since we took two weeks off a couple weeks ago.) The older episode numbers are also going up, meaning that people are going back to listen in to them as well.
Not surprisingly, most of the audience comes from the United States, despite our attempts to have Indiana traded for conditional draft picks. We’re still not doing Hoosiers though. We’ve got a little following in the UK. I’d like to see how we can increase our audience there and in Australia.
The Episodes
All I knew when we created this thing is that I wanted it to be different than every other podcast out there. There’s tons of history pods and lots of movie pods but nothing really standing at the nexus between the two. As as my friend Waitman Beorn likes to say, we weren’t interested in rivet counting. In other words, the HATM Podcast is not and never will be solely interesting the historical accuracy of a film. That’s boring.
What I want to do with this is the same thing we’ve been doing with HATM ever since we got started. I want to bridge gaps between historians and the public. I want to showcase scholars as just regular people who like the same stuff as everyone else. I want to build community. I want us to laugh as well as think. I want this to be fun.
I’ve thought a lot about this over the last twelve months. One of the keys to the pod is that they vary from one episode to the next. Some are very deep dives into history and historical concepts. Others rank the hottest presidents and thereby introduce the term “smokeshow” as a term of historical discourse. But I want the audience to feel as though they are part of the conversation, because they are. This is for y’all.1
It would be difficult to rank the episodes because of how much I enjoy talking to everyone. Each conversation is so much fun. But I do get questions from time to time about examples of what the pod is like, so here are a few in no particular order.2
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood with Jeffrey Melnick- Jeff and I had been twitter friends for years but had never actually spoken in person before recording the pod. Jeff had written some stuff earlier on the Manson killings, but the reason I wanted to record a pod with him was simply because I thought he was one of the coolest guys I’d ever talked to online. And I was right. This episode in my mind started to explore just exactly what the pod could be. We talked about the film and his work, but also about creating syllabi, developing new courses, and even the history of hip hop. Jeff is coming back to do Munich soon, and I can’t wait.
Dirty Harry with Drew McKevitt- I think Drew is doing some of the most important work in the field of American history right now. His new book, Gun Country: Gun Capitalism, Culture, and Control in Cold War America is winning all sorts of accolades and it’s easy to see how. Drew is a dude that I just knew I was going to mesh with and this episode takes a Clint Eastwood film and reconstructs how gun culture embedded itself in the United States. Drew is coming back to talk about Robocop, which he assures me is actually a Christmas movie. So look forward to that.
The Last of the Mohicans with Wayne E. Lee- It took me a little bit to track Wayne down but I’m so glad I did. Wayne’s new book, The Cutting-Off Way: Indigenous Warfare in Eastern North America, 1500–1800, fell inside my own academic interests, meaning that I got to engage a with topic I was familiar with. In addition to a shared interest in Indigenous history, we both love this film. Combined together, we got maybe the most complete version of this podcast from a historical angle.
Dirty Dancing with Leah Lagrone, Laurne MacIvor Thompson, and Lauren Lassabe Shepherd- Sometimes the best thing the host can do is open up the pod and then get the hell out of the way. Each one of these historians had been on the pod before but none had every spoken to one another prior to the pod. That made for an amazing episode in which we talked about how Dirty Dancing commented on the 60s, abortion, Reagan-era feminism, AIDS, and more.
The 13th Warrior with Thomas Lecaque and John Wyatt Greenlee- I don’t know of anyone who has seen this film who doesn’t love it. I also don’t know anyone who necessarily thinks it is a good film, either. And that’s ok. What Thomas and John Wyatt get into in this pod is how films that play with history can not only be really fun, but also shed a lot of light on how we think about history. It’s not a surprise that these guys have been back twice since then (Kingdom of Heaven, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) with additional episodes coming. Every episode with them features at least one moment of laughing until it hurts. History is fun. These guys show that.
Napoleon with Laura O’Brien and Corinne Gressang. The Emergency Pod. We put this episode together in a rush over the Thanksgiving holiday thanks to both Laura and Corinne but also producer Fletcher so that we could give you really the first hot take in the pod’s history. We cut the pod to two hours, but when I tell you it could have gone twice that long, let me assure that is the case. We’re going to revisit this film when the Director’s Cut comes out. Maybe that’s when we’ll go overtime.
Lessons learned
I’m really proud of what we’re doing with the pod, but that doesn’t mean there’s not room for improvement as we head into Year Two. Diversity has always been important to me. We’ve had a great mixture of men and women on the pod. But I’d like to add to that. I hope to invite more people of color as guests. I’d like to feature more films that speak to LGBTQ experiences. We’ve got folks scheduled for episodes in 2024. I just want y’all to know that that is important to me and something I am working towards.
I also hope to continue to branch out to people other than historians. We had journalists and media scholars, and even an ER physician our first year—can we bring in other people from other walks of life? I like to think that everyone is a historian of their own experiences so hopefully we can bring folks in.
I also hope to add actors and directors to our roster. We have a few folks who follow us. I’m hoping they’ll say yes as well. This will help to open up history to wider audiences.
Another thing- I am swamped with messages right now and have had a hard time keeping up. I am terribly sorry about this. I’m working fulltime with the Forest Service, writing the book, being a dad to two kids 2,000 miles away, and dealing with a puppy. I promise I’m not forgetting to get back to you. I’m just forgetting to get back to you. But I’ll get there. Promise.
Plans for the future
Alright, first things first: I had no idea how much time or money would be required. I think between this and the Sunday night watch party, I am now spending between 25 and 30 hours a week on HATM. It’s a labor of love right now. To produce the pod, Fletcher spends between four and six hours on each episode. He is not paid. I am not paid. But we hope that if we can keep this going, eventually we can build some revenue. We are going to try for some grants. We hope to continue to gain momentum and eventually build up some sponsors. Right now, what we have are a few Substack supporters who pledge monthly or annually. You’re welcome to do so at the button below as well (it definitely helps), but HATM will always remain free to everyone.
I’d like a newer, better logo. Working on that.
A lot of you have asked about merchandise. Yes, an HATM store is in the works for 2024, but still (only) a few months away. But it’s coming.
Further, we are currently developing new podcasts to add under the HATM banner. I want to use this platform we’ve built to showcase the works of other scholars. It’s too early to announce anything official yet, but expect to hear more soon. I am absolutely geeked out about it.
How you can be part of this
You already are. I like to think I keep it real here and elsewhere so most of you know HATM—this community—got me through some rough patches last year. I don’t exaggerate when I say I love y’all.3 The things we need, we already have: you guys. Keep listening. Keep sharing. A thing that really helps is when folks retweet (or reskeet on Bluesky? Sounds weird) the pod. We could definitely use some more reviews on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. They help when new people check out the pod and what we are up to.
But you don’t have to do anything. I don’t ever want to be in the position of asking from this community. Being here is enough.
Oh wait- here’s a thing: tell me who you want on the pod. What films do you want talked about? What do you like? Let me know what you’re liking.
Alright, I think (hope) that’s good enough for now. Looking down at the clock, it’s now 9:53pm, meaning I’ve been typing away on this for just shy of an hour and 45 minutes. We’ve got a really cool episode with Patrick Wyman about The Last Duel coming for you on Wednesday. It’s a super deep dive into the Middle Ages and maybe just a touch of shenanigans.
Thank you for being here.
-JWH
I feel at some point that I should admit that I type “y’all” far more than I actually say it. My mom points out that I lost my Southern accent years ago. I’m much more of a “you guys” person. But this sounds nicer.
I’m trying to embed both Apple and Spotify here but Apple doesn’t always play nice with Substack. So rest assured that all of these episodes can be found wherever you listen to yours.
Unless you’re in Indiana.
Happy Stackaversary. :).
Happy Birthday ! Now I want to go back and re-listen to some of these. I guess it won’t be real until NATIONAL TREASURE is the pod movie, too!
Ha ha, Hoosiers! For whatever reason, it was one of the movies shown on the parents’ football bus when our son was in HS. That and Rudy. It was a modest team for a small school. Our son was a theatre and music kid mostly.... the football player who sang the National anthem before the games and sometimes still had stage makeup on when he arrived to suit up for the game. But they won a free games, and there were some long rides across a big state.
I never stayed awake for all of Hoosiers, but ended up wit a fondness for Rudy, and came to love Last of the Titans, which is the one I think you should play if you must do a sports movie
And, Happy Birthday