New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

New York State Podcasts

We publish several podcast announcements each week. You can find them all here.

If you produce a podcast about an aspect of New York State and want to have it noticed here, e-mail editor John Warren at nyalmanack@gmail.com

Marion Hollins: Long Island’s Golf Hall of Famer

by Leave a Comment

long island history project logoMarion Hollins was born into a wealthy family in East Islip, Long Island at the height of the Gilded Age. Although an adept equestrian, polo player, and proud member of the Ladies’ Four in Hand Club, she devoted most of her life to the world of golf.

She won the US Women’s National Championship in 1921 and went on to develop and help design a number of prominent golf courses, mostly in California. Forgotten for most of the past century, she is now being recognized for her success and perseverance as a designer, athlete, and real estate developer. In 2022 she will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. [Read more…] about Marion Hollins: Long Island’s Golf Hall of Famer

Brad Utter Talks About His Canal Exhibit, Book Experience

by Leave a Comment

Enterprising WatersThe latest episode of “Empire State Engagements” features a conversation with New York State Museum Senior Historian and Curator Brad Utter about his recent exhibit on the Erie Canal, “Enterprising Waters,” as well as his book of the same title, published by SUNY Press in 2020. [Read more…] about Brad Utter Talks About His Canal Exhibit, Book Experience

A Time Travel Novel Visits Amsterdam, NY

by Leave a Comment

The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast, Linda Wisniewski discusses her book Where the Stork Flies (Sand Hill Review Press, 2021), a time travel novel about a librarian who meets a 19th century ancestor and the medieval Polish Queen Jadwiga. There are several scenes in the author’s home town of Amsterdam, New York, as well as scenes in Poland in 1825. [Read more…] about A Time Travel Novel Visits Amsterdam, NY

The Origins of Juneteenth (Podcast)

by Leave a Comment

ben_franklins_worldJuneteenth is a state holiday that commemorates June 19th, 1865, the day slavery ended in Texas. Over the last decade, a push to make Juneteenth a national holiday to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States has gained momentum. 

What do we know about Juneteenth and its origins?

In this episode of the Ben Franklin’s World podcast, Annette Gordon-Reed, an award-winning historian at Harvard University and Harvard Law School, is a native Texan and she joins us to discuss the early history of Texas and the origins of the Juneteenth holiday with details from her book, On Juneteenth (Liveright, 2021).

[Read more…] about The Origins of Juneteenth (Podcast)

An Interview With Brad Edmondson On Adirondack History

by Leave a Comment

wild ideaThe most recent episode of “Empire State Engagements” features a conversation with author Brad Edmondson about his book A Wild Idea: How the Environmental Movement Tamed the Adirondacks (Three Hills/Cornell University Press, 2021).  [Read more…] about An Interview With Brad Edmondson On Adirondack History

Marguerite Kearns: Unfinished Women’s Rights Revolution (Podcast)

by Leave a Comment

The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast the guest is Marguerite Kearns, author of Unfinished Revolution: Edna Buckman Kearns and the Struggle for Women’s Rights (SUNY Press, 2021). The book explores how Edna Buckman Kearns’s focus on women’s suffrage and world peace affected her family then and now. [Read more…] about Marguerite Kearns: Unfinished Women’s Rights Revolution (Podcast)

Parish Lifeblood: Italian-Americans In Williamsburg (Podcast)

by Leave a Comment

Lifeblood of the ParishIn the latest episode of Empire State Engagements Dr. Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada talks about her ethnographic study of Italian-American men’s Catholic devotion, Lifeblood of the Parish; Men and Catholic Devotion in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (NYU Press, 2020). She discussed her experiences over six years of work engaging the parish community; reading tattoos as devotional texts; playfulness and devotion in masculine spaces; the rich history of Italian-American Catholicism in Williamsburg; and the endurance of this parish, tradition, and community – despite decades of challenges ranging from reactionary clergymen to Robert Moses to gentrifying hipsters. [Read more…] about Parish Lifeblood: Italian-Americans In Williamsburg (Podcast)

An Early History of the Mississippi Gulf Coast

by Leave a Comment

ben_franklins_worldThe Mississippi Gulf Coast was the home of many different peoples, cultures, and empires during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. According to some historians, the Gulf Coast region may have been the most diverse region in early North America.

In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World: A Podcast About Early American History, Matthew Powell, a historian of slavery and southern history and the Executive Director of the La Pointe-Krebs House & Museum in Pascagoula, Mississippi, joins us to investigate and explore the Mississippi Gulf Coast and a prominent family who has lived there since about 1718. [Read more…] about An Early History of the Mississippi Gulf Coast