Telling History
Where history’s threads weave through the fabric of our lives there lies an elusive “a-ha” moment of curiosity and wonder. Here, along these seams, history truly comes alive. Southeast Missouri State University professor Joel Rhodes, a social historian of 20th century America with decidedly Gen X sensibilities explores our textured and rich tapestry of shared historical experience. Join Dr. Joel Rhodes “Telling History" on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month during Morning Edition (7:45 a.m.) and All Things Considered (4:44 p.m.)
Latest Episodes
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Raised largely on garden hose water and limited parental supervision, there is a generation of Americans tucked rather indifferently between baby boomers and millennials. Demographers call this cohort of 60 million born between 1965-1980, Generation X. Educators referred to millions of Gen X as latchkey kids, students returning to an empty house with a key to let themselves in. Working parents indeed mostly left us alone – afterschool, weekends, and summers – so we fended for ourselves, self-reliant, and let's be honest, kind of feral. -
“I’m not trying to be a hero,” Sheriff Will Kane stoically resolved,” If you think I like this, you’re crazy…. I’ve got to, that’s the whole thing.” Thus, Gary Cooper’s character set out for a gunfight, facing down outlaws in the classic 1952 western High Noon. -
“Pressure is a privilege,” tennis legend Billie Jean King observed. And now that the University of Iowa Hawkeyes’ generational superstar Caitlin Clark has become the NCAA Division-I all-time leading scorer in basketball – male or female – it’s fitting to highlight the transformative impact of Title IX on America’s sporting landscape; a landmark law opening doors for untold young female athletes to experience that unique privilege of athletic pressure. -
“Someday I’m gonna be, exactly like you,” a wispy little voice sang out in Barbie’s first television commercial in 1959. “Till then… I’ll make believe that I am you.” -
Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street? Well, as an historian, I’m glad you asked. First, go back to the 1960s until you see President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Great Society, then turn left at his Project Head Start, past the Public Broadcasting Service, until you come to the Children’s Television Workshop... that’s how we get to Sesame Street. -
“Is this your beach ball? Hey, yeah, thank you very much!” From this innocent seaside exchange an important friendship was born – an interracial friendship – between one of America’s most lovable losers – Charlie Brown and an African American classmate – Franklin Armstrong. -
The H-Bomb’s significantly larger blast and fallout – covering several hundred miles – required the coordinated evacuation of all major US cities with rapid cross-country military deployment. These mock nuclear attacks served as a report card, and our country’s inadequate patchwork of outdated highways, unpaved roads, dangerous tunnels, and narrow bridges failed miserably. -
“It’s got a good beat, and you can dance to it.” Magic Words that once upon time transformed boys from Philadelphia’s Italian neighborhoods into Fabian or Frankie Avalon, Teen Idols; transported modest tunes like “At the Hop” all the way to #1 on Billboard’s Top 40, hit records; and conjured up rhythmic rituals whereby seemingly ordinary adolescents flailed about like a Mashed Potato, dance crazes. -
“Roger,” astronaut Jim Lovell radioed to mission control in Houston on Christmas morning 1968, “please be informed there is a Santa Claus.” Lovell’s revelation confirmed Apollo 8’s departure from lunar orbit. The night before on Christmas Eve, he, Frank Borman, and Bill Anders – the first humans to orbit the moon – enthralled a global primetime television audience with extraordinary celestial footage, before sending us off to bed by taking turns narrating the Bible’s depiction of creation. -
If you ever huffed and puffed climbing a rope to a school gym ceiling in the sixties or strained, red-faced to chin up on the playground in the seventies hoping to win the coveted President’s Council on Physical Fitness award, those words from the “Youth Fitness Song” are probably making you break out in a spontaneous sweat as I speak.
