We Could Use Some of Interstellar's Time Travel
A Busy Week Ahead
Hey everyone and happy winter vortex. I hope you’re warm wherever you are. This was a big weekend for the #HATM community. We just came off of yet another great night for the Historians At The Movies watch party as we finished watching Interstellar about an hour ago as I am typing this. We also as you know topped 100,000 downloads on the Historians At The Movies Podcast, a really remarkable number and something I am so proud of. Thank you for that.
A few friends asked me Friday what I was going to do to celebrate. Frankly, I hadn’t even thought of it. But I said maybe I’d go to the zoo and then maybe antiquing.1 And I actually did take most of Saturday off, but Sunday was right back at it. Right now, I can’t slow down. We’re getting too many requests and there are too many things on the horizon. And I guess that’s what I thought I’d write about tonight.
As you probably know, we are currently on a little bit of a break for Historians At The Movies Podcast, mostly so we can gear up for a HUGE season 3 beginning later this month. Behind the scenes, I am lining up sessions, reading books, and recording pods as fast as I can, recording four pods between Wednesday night and Friday afternoon alone.
I’ve also made the decision to streamline things a bit by moving Reckoning podcasts over to the Historians At The Movies Podcast lineup. This has the benefit of having all of our content in one place, and it’ll save a few dollars on costs. So basically you can expect Reckoning episodes to drop on Mondays and HATM episodes to drop on Thursdays. Hopefully that will make it a bit easier for our listeners to find the stuff they like.
I head back into the office tomorrow for my work as a Tribal Liaison for the Forest Service. This time of year is fairly quiet and ideal for catching up on mandatory trainings and things like that, though I am working on some long term projects that I’ll be able to share when the time comes.
I’m also writing on my book, which is an environmental history of early Florida, tracing the state’s evolution after the introduction of cattle in the sixteenth century through the end of the Seminole Wars. I wrote my doctoral dissertation in part on this, but am making the project a bit more expansive in book format.2 I’m under contract with the University of Oklahoma Press (really wonderful people) and I’m hoping you’ll have this book in your hands towards the end of next year.
I’ve got a couple other things working right now that I can’t quite reveal, but if they pan out, could be huge. So we’ll see. All of this is probably to say that I’m crazy busy right now, and thankful for it.3
Since we watched Interstellar on the watch party tonight, I thought maybe this was the ideal time to share with you the episode we did with Dr. Kelsey Johnson, who is an astrophysicist at the University of Virginia and one of my favorite people. Reckoning episodes are a bit more straightforward and don’t have any fancy music or edits. Just me, a guest, and a cool conversation. And Kelsey is one of the coolest people you’ll ever meet. Find that below.
Here’s a link for Kelsey’s book, Into the Unknown: The Quest to Understand the Mysteries of the Cosmos.
HATM Watch Party
This week we are going to revisit a film from 1990 to talk about medicine, patient care, and Robin Williams. Join in on Netflix at 8pm this Sunday, January 12 for Awakenings.
One last thing, some of y’all asked for recipes for what I’ve been making. Since it’s cold, one of the things I’ve really started enjoying is creamy potato soup. It’s super easy and makes great leftovers. I found this recipe online, which I tweak just a bit for my own taste. Thought you might like it too. 4
https://sugarspunrun.com/creamy-potato-soup-recipe/
Ok, I’m really going this time, but thanks for being here. Hope you have a great week.
Your friend,
Jason
Eat your hearts out, ladies.
One of the difficult things about transitioning from dissertation to book is really “finding” the book you want your work to be. Plus, people are hopefully gonna read this thing. You’re putting yourself out there. It can be a bit scary. My hat is off to anyone who can do this. But it’s time. And I’ve decided to write the book that I want to read. Let’s see what happens next.
I’m told that I still have to make time for the gym and the dog. And eat. Eating is probably good.
Oh that’s right. Antiquing and soup. I’m a catch.
Putting both pods in one feed? Happy new year to me! Happy writing, from one hopeful mss finisher to another...