Latest John brown Podcast Episodes
The Legend of John Brown's Baby Kiss Revisited
John Brown Today - April 12, 2023 03:00 - 38 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode, Lou does a deep dive evaluation of the legend of John Brown kissing a black baby on the day of his execution, a story that has been enshrined in poetry and paintings. Sharing his research on the topic, Lou considers the evidence and draws some interesting conclusions suggestin...
"From John Brown to James Brown": A Conversation with Ed Maliskas
John Brown Today - February 05, 2023 04:00 - 46 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode, Lou shares a conversation with author Ed Maliskas, a musician, clergyman, and researcher, the author of John Brown to James Brown: The Little Farm Where Liberty Budded, Blossomed, and Boogied (2016). In this fascinating discussion, Ed talks about coming to learn about the old K...
The Sellout of Harper's Ferry Station: The Difficult Case of Heyward Shepherd
John Brown Today - January 17, 2023 06:00 - 44 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode, Lou takes on the difficult theme of Heyward Shepherd, the black porter who was mortally wounded by John Brown's men during the Harper's Ferry raid, on the night of October 16, 1859. Reviewing the initial incidents of the raid, Lou considers the conventional narrative of Shepher...
Reaction & Reflection: David Blight on John Brown - - "John Brown Terrorist or Hero?"
John Brown Today - December 29, 2022 07:00 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsAfter an extended hiatus, Lou returns with a reaction & reflection upon the YouTube video, "John Brown: Terrorist or Hero?" which features a short lecture by the eminent historian David Blight. John Brown Today features the audio version here, and listeners can also view the reaction & reflecti...
What Did Blacks Really Think of John Brown? Kudos & Conflicts (Part 1)
John Brown Today - October 24, 2022 04:00 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn Part 1 of "What Did Blacks Really Think of John Brown?" Lou reflects upon the question of white allies, particularly in the case of John Brown's story. What did black leaders and other associates really think of John Brown? Recalling Brown's devotion to black liberation and notable devotion ...
What Did Blacks Really Think of John Brown? The Question of "Sambo Mistakes" (Part 2)
John Brown Today - October 24, 2022 04:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn Part 2 of this two-part episode, Lou reflects upon the question of white allies, particularly in the case of John Brown's story. What did black leaders and other associates really think of John Brown? Recalling Brown's devotion to black liberation and notable devotion to human equality, Lou ...
Questioning John Brown’s Sanity: A Historical Thread Considered
John Brown Today - September 09, 2022 05:00 - 48 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsMany people in the United States, especially (but not exclusively) white people, tend to think of John Brown as someone who was "crazy." In this episode, Lou surveys what he calls a historical "thread" regarding the alleged insanity of Brown. Beginning with affidavits filed in Virginia in 1859 ...
John Brown’s Trial: The “Lost” Narrative of George H. Hoyt
John Brown Today - July 25, 2022 07:00 - 57 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode, Lou presents a narrative written by John Brown's young lawyer, George H. Hoyt, written only a few years after the abolitionist's hanging. Hoyt went to join John Brown in Charlestown, Virginia (today West Va.) and support his lawyers, but really went as a spy for Brown's support...
Why John Brown? A Biographer's Reflections in Response to a Thoughtful Critic
John Brown Today - June 30, 2022 03:00 - 44 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode, Lou responds to the comments of a thoughtful but critical podcast listener who has well-stated reasons for asking, "why John Brown?" The question is a good one and Lou starts with personal and scholarly reflections on a range of views of Brown that range from anti-Brown to non-...
Good Boy with a Gun: The Tragic Story of Will Leeman, A Harper’s Ferry Raider
John Brown Today - May 26, 2022 20:00 - 48 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode, Lou does a deep dive into the story of William Leeman, the youngest of John Brown's Harper's Ferry raiders. From his origins in Maine to Kansas and his enlistment in John Brown's army, we look at the story of a young man with feet of iron and clay, whose death in Virginia in 18...
"John Brown Has Been Lost to His Own Church": An Interview with Louis DeCaro Jr. by Dr. Chris Dost, July 10, 2021
John Brown Today - April 30, 2022 02:00 - 54 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode, Lou is interviewed by Dr. Chris Dost, biblical scholar and pastor of the Northville Baptist Church in New Milford, Connecticut. This audio is excerpted from an interview recorded on July 10, 2021. Closing tune: "Amazing Grace" by Cooper Cannell Hey friends, click on this link...
Biography: The Ups and Downs of Mr. Brown, 1835-1851
John Brown Today - April 04, 2022 22:00 - 27 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode, Lou provides a slice of biography, zooming in on John Brown's personal and economic challenges as a frontier entrepreneur and his often forgotten comeback in the early 1840s. While overlooked by unstudied and prejudiced scholars, Brown actually bounced back in the mid-1840s and ...
A Disparate Legacy: Oswald Garrison Villard and the John Brown Biography
John Brown Today - March 16, 2022 02:00 - 39 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsTo begin the fourth cycle of John Brown Today, Lou reflects upon the life and contribution of Brown biographer, Oswald Garrison Villard, whose life of John Brown was first published in 1910. As Lou argues, Villard did a great favor to historical study and John Brown students by commissioning ext...
Interrogating History: The Mayflower, “America,” and John Brown
John Brown Today - January 31, 2022 08:00 - 37 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode, Lou reflects upon the critical thesis of the late Gabriel Moran (1935-2021), who indefatigably pointed out the distinction between "America" as a dream (and as a vast continental land mass) and The United States of America as a nation. Following Gabriel's lead, Lou reflects upo...
Light vs. Lies: The Real History of the Harper's Ferry Raid (with a Jan. 6th epilogue!)
John Brown Today - January 16, 2022 02:00 - 51 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode, Lou revisits the Harper's Ferry raid of October 16, 1859, presents some preliminary thoughts on the contemporary perspective and then addresses a number of key points, along with a "January 6th" epilogue. The key points addressed in this extended episode are: 1. What basically...
My John Brown Holiday Notes
John Brown Today - December 24, 2021 22:00 - 23 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode Lou tries to answer the question, "Did John Brown celebrate Christmas?" This leads us to consider both Thanksgiving and Christmas in the antebellum era, what they represented to the North and South, respectively, and their social significance. Then, taking a quick tour of the ar...
A Text For the Nation: John Brown Beyond Biography
John Brown Today - December 13, 2021 18:00 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode, Lou reflects upon the 1859 words of abolitionist orator Wendell Phillips, that the hanged John Brown had "given this nation a text." Lou considers how W.E.B. DuBois used the abolitionist as a text in writing his biography John Brown in 1909. Almost seventy years later, the left...
John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Moral Core: A Juxtaposition for December 2
John Brown Today - November 30, 2021 05:00 - 49 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode, Lou reflects upon the "moral core" of Brown and Lincoln in juxtaposition. Mainly considering how these men are viewed in terms of religion and in regard to their roles in human liberation, Lou argues that Lincoln is neither a prophet nor a martyr, and that he is bested in both c...
Explaining John Brown Correctly: A Conversation with Dan Morrison
John Brown Today - November 17, 2021 16:00 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode Lou talks with Dan Morrison, a journalist and artist who lives in Torrington, Connecticut, the birthplace of John Brown. The basis of the conversation is Dan's recent explainer video, "Was John Brown a Terrorist?" an Explainer Video which succinctly and effectively addresses a t...
Mary Ellen Pleasant and "The Rule of Credible Evidence"
John Brown Today - October 17, 2021 14:00 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode, Lou discusses the story of Mary Ellen Pleasant, an African American woman who has been lauded for her civil rights activities in 19th century San Francisco, but--more important to this podcast--claimed to have been a confidant and supporter of John Brown. Along the way, Lou shar...
The Voices of the Past: A Conversation with Ian Barford (Part 2)
John Brown Today - September 27, 2021 15:00 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode, Lou continues his conversation with friend Ian Barford, the actor and Brown-Douglass researcher. In this episode we discuss Ian's project on John Brown's relationship with Frederick Douglass and other black leaders of that period, including the impact that black nationalist arc...
The Voices of the Past: A Conversation with Ian Barford (Part 2)
John Brown Today - September 27, 2021 15:00 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode, Lou continues his conversation with friend Ian Barford, the actor and Brown-Douglass researcher. In this episode we discuss Ian's project on John Brown's relationship with Frederick Douglass and other black leaders of that period, including the impact that black nationalist arc...
"The Voices of the Past": A Conversation with Ian Barford (Part 1)
John Brown Today - September 06, 2021 20:00 - 35 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsWelcome back to John Brown Today! In this episode, the first of two parts, I'm talking with my friend, Ian Barford, a Tony-nominated actor who is also a John Brown enthusiast and, in his own right, quite a scholar and researcher. For some years now, Ian has been working artistically on the theme...
The Voices of the Past: A Conversation with Ian Barford (Part 1)
John Brown Today - September 06, 2021 20:00 - 35 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsWelcome back to John Brown Today! In this episode, the first of two parts, I'm talking with my friend, Ian Barford, a Tony-nominated actor who is also a John Brown enthusiast and, in his own right, quite a scholar and researcher. For some years now, Ian has been working artistically on the theme...
Reading John Brown's "A Declaration of Liberty" (July 4, 1859)
John Brown Today - July 06, 2021 03:00 - 49 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode, Lou reflects on the text of John Brown's 1859 document, "A Declaration of Liberty," which was intended as the official pronouncement of the liberation movement and "guerrilla" state that he intended to establish in the South after staging a political demonstration at Harper's Fe...
Father and Son
John Brown Today - June 17, 2021 07:00 - 42 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this special Father's Day episode, Lou reflects on the example and influence of Owen Brown (1771-1856), the father of abolitionist John Brown. From Connecticut to the Ohio wilderness in the early 19th century, father and son Brown share a common religious faith and zeal for human rights and ...
John Brown Remembrance (2020)
John Brown Today - June 03, 2021 03:00 - 10 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsThis is the edited audio of a short video done to commemorate the 220th birthday of John Brown in 2020. This brief reflection on Brown's life and significance entails his upbringing, biographical profile, his impact on anti-colonial revolutionaries, his cultural diminishment in the USA, and con...
John Brown's Best Friend in the Twentieth Century
John Brown Today - May 23, 2021 04:00 - 38 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this episode, Lou recalls the important role of Boyd B. Stutler (1889-1970), "the godfather of John Brown scholars." Lou sketches Stutler's life, from his youth as a newspaperman and one of the youngest mayors in his era, to his role as a war time correspondent and veterans' magazine editor. ...
INTRODUCING "37: The Curious & Embattled Life of Charles Kenyatta"
John Brown Today - May 10, 2021 00:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsLouis A. DeCaro Jr., the host of JOHN BROWN TODAY, introduces a limited-series podcast that he has produced called 37: THE CURIOUS & EMBATTLED LIFE OF CHARLES KENYATTA. It is the story of his association and friendship with Charles (37X) Kenyatta, a follower of Malcolm X and prominent personal...
Hurrah For Old John Brown: The July 4th 1860 Meeting at John Brown's Farm & Grave
John Brown Today - May 06, 2021 07:00 - 53 minutes ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsIn this John Brown birthday episode, Lou presents a reflection upon the "reunion" meeting at John Brown's farm that took place on July 4, 1860, before the Brown family sold the property and relocated to California three years later. Based on an account published in William Lloyd Garrison's The...
Related John brown Topics